REPORT 


of 


gden  Public  School 

Survey 
Commission 


Published  by  the 

State  Department  of  Education 

by  permission  of  the 

Ogden  City  School  Board 


GIFT   OF 


a*&7  £A 


REPORT 


of 


Ogden  Public  School 

Survey 
Commission 


Published  by  the 

State  Department  of  Education 

by  permission  of  the 

Ogden  City  School  Board 


Report  of 

Ogden   Public   School 
Survey  Commission 


DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR. 

Bureau  of  Education,  Washington. 

Division  of  School  Administration. 
Mr.  J.  M.  Mills,  Supt.  of  Schools, 
Ogden,  Utah. 

My  Dear  Mr.  Mills :  I  am  sending  you  a  copy  of  our  re- 
port as  edited  by  the  Editor  of  this  Bureau.  It  seems  to  me 
that  you  should  have  an  introductory  page  or  two,  and  that 
among  other  things  you  should  call  attention  to  the  fact  that 
throughout  the  report  the  criticism  made  in  our  part  regarding 
the  half  day  plan  refers  only  to  the  work  inside  the  school. 
You  will  find  that  we  recommend  credit  for  work  outside  the 
school.  Professors  Ward  and  Roylance  also  treat  of  this 
phase  of  your  school  situation.  A  summary  of  our  report,  it 
seems  to  me,  would  be  an  excellent  thing. 

Please  send  me  several  copies  of  the  printed  report. 

Sincerely  yours, 

(Signed)    W.  S.  DEFFENBAUGH, 
Specialist  in  School  Administration. 


402962 


OGDEN  SCHOOL  SURVEY  REPORT.    OGDEN,  UTAH. 
INTRODUCTION. 

THE   HALF  DAY   SESSION   PLAN. 
By  Supt.  J.  M.  Mils. 

A  year  ago  a  proposal  was  made  in  Ogden  for  vitalizing  the 
schools  by  reorganizing  them  on  an  industrial  plan,  having  a  half 
day  of  academic  and  a  half  day  of  industrial,  social  and  physical  work, 
and  in  certain  cases  boys  and  girls  were  to  be  excused  from  the  in- 
dustrial half  day  of  the  school  to  take  their  industrial  work  in  some 
of  the  approved  industries  of  our  city  on  the  co-operative  plan,  on 
the  theory  that  the  real,  practical  work  of  life  should  be  an  essential 
part  of  our  educational  system;  provided  that  it  shall  be  thoroughly 
supervised  and  that  the  intellectual,  physical  and  social  progress  of 
the  student  shall  not  in  any  way  be  hampered.  Some  kinds  of  work 
have  little  or  no  educational  value.  Other  kinds  are  injurious  to  body, 
mind  and  morals.  The  child  should  be  protected  by  the  school  from 
entering  such  employments.  It  was  also  thought  that  the  educational 
value  of  earning  and  saving  money  was  an  important  thing  in  the 
training  of  young  people.  This  plan  was  intended  to  make  full  use 
of  the  school  plant  all  the  time — day  and  evening — the  year  around. 
The  proper  mingling  of  work,  play  and  study  can  lengthen  the  school 
day  without  injury  to  any  child,  while  under  the  present  system  the 
present  day  is  too  long.  Cramming  the  child  with  a  mass  of  unrelated, 
disconnected,  disassociated,  meaningless  abstract  formalities  is  mak- 
ing a  generation  of  mental  dyspeptics  unfitted  for  usefulness.  The 
benefits  of  longer  supervision  in  related  activities  are  numerous.  The 
rights  of  every  individual  child  should  be  safeguarded,  and  in  some 
cases  it  is  known  that  the  home  can  provide  better  training  than  the 
school  for  a  part  of  the  time  each  day.  Great  care  should  be  taken 
by  the  school  officers,  however,  that  careless  and  grasping  parents 
should  not  exploit  their  children  for  mere  financial  gain.  Junior  and 
Senior  High  School  boys  and  girls  may  be  directed  by  the  home, 
with  great  profit,  in  housekeeping,  dairying,  cabinet  making,  garden- 
ing and  many  other  occupations,  as  well  as  in  private  lessons  in  art, 
music,  languages,  elocution,  etc.  The  daily  program  should  be  such 
that  the  book-minded  or  the  hand-minded  child  can  be  cared  for 
and  his  choice  under  guidance  should  be  encouraged.  Many  boys  and 
girls,  too,  could  be  brought  back  to  school  for  the  academic  half  day, 
who  are  compelled  to  leave  school,  continuing  the  industrial  half  day 
away  from  the  school  plant.  If  their  necessities  demand  their  full 
time  outside,  their  academic  training  could  be  obtained  in  the  evening 
school,  provided  in  the  Social  Center. 

The  Social  Center. 

Every  school  building  should  be  kept  open  all  day  and  evening. 
Work,  play  and  study  should  be  the  program  of  each  session.  Run- 
ning a  school  system  should  receive  as  much  business  sense  as  any 
other  big  business.  Any  other  business,  after  having  built  a  large 
expensive  plant  would  want  to  use  that  plant  to  its  capacity.  School 
buildings  are  generally  used  five  and  a  half  hours  a  day,  five  days  in 
a  week,  nine  months  in  the  year,  and  stand  idle  the  other  half  of  the 
time.  Why  this  appalling  loss?  The  Ogden  Plan  calls  for  the  full 
use  of  the  plants  all  the  time,  each  building  containing  full  facilities  for 


5 

all  lines  of  development — be  they  manual  training,  sewing,  cooking, 
swimming,  bowling,  hand-ball,  gymnasium  work,  reading,  lectures, 
music,  dancing,  dramatics,  or  any  training  wanted  by  both  young  and 
old  of  both  sexes. 

Work. 

There  is  no  one  thing  in  all  the  experience  of  youth  that  does 
more  to  develop  men  and  women  of  common  sense  than  work.  The 
weakest  point  in  our  American  school  system  is  that  there  is  little 
provision  for  training  boys  and  girls  to  be  useful.  A  little  work 
scattered  along  in  all  the  years  of  the  student's  life  will  make  him 
more  reliable,  his  reason  more  logical,  his  judgment  more  sound,  his 
aspirations  more  lofty,  and  his  ambitions  more  enduring.  The  tendency 
of  physical  work  is  to  promote  and  sustain  the  mental  and  physical 
organization  in  an  uninterrupted  action  of  health  until  it  shall  be 
broken  up  and  dissolved  in  death.  Man  is  kept  in  life  by  work,  and 
dies  because  he  will  not  or  cannot  work.  Every  boy  should  know  how 
to  make  a  living  when  he  leaves  school,  and  every  girl  how  to  make 
and  keep  a  pleasant  home. 

Education  is  the  acquisition  of  power;  not  an  accumulation  of 
facts.  The  one  who  is  best  educated  is  the  one  who  is  best  fitted  for 
life,  and  it  often  happens  that  a  man  is  best  educated  who  has  never 
been  in  school,  and  that  a  man  who  has  been  through  college  is  most 
unfitted  for  life.  When  the  time  comes  that  anyone  may  properly 
fit  himself  in  the  school-room  for  life's  duties,  our  schools  will  serve 
their  best  purpose.  The  kitten  in  its  play  imitates  the  more  serious 
work  of  the  grown  animal.  This  helps  to  fit  it  for  its  later  work. 
There  can  be  no  valid  reason  given  why  the  training  of  children 
should  be  entirely  unlike  their  later  duties.  The  school  should  be 
industrial,  cultural,  and  social,  and  should  provide  training  along  all 
these  lines.  "We  learn  to  do  by  doing."  The  school  should  provide 
as  nearly  as  possible  the  laboratories  for  training  in  the  various  lines 
that  may  be  taken  up  later  in  life.  It  is  especially  difficult  to  see  why 
the  school  plant  should  open  for  operation  at  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  close  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  In  most  places 
there  is  no  reason  except  an  ancient  tradition,  why  it  should  not  run 
on  Saturday  and  in  the  summer.  School  should  be  made  as  much  like 
real  life  as  possible  since  its  purpose  is  to  prepare  for  life. 

Our  education  is  continuous.  It  begins  in  the  cradle  and  ends 
with  the  grave,  and  is  made  up  of  work,  play  and  study.  Too  often 
one  or  two  of  these  sides  may  be  overlooked  or  eliminated  from  our 
training,  giving  us  at  best  an  imperfect  preparation.  The  man  or 
woman  who  does  not  know  how  to  work  is  handicapped  through  life 
even  though  a  legacy  might  have  been  left  to  him  through  the  death 
of  a  wealthy  ancestor.  One  who  does  not  know  how  to  play  becomes 
old  while  yet  young  and  misses  the  pleasures  of  his  own  life  and  fails 
to  know  those  of  the  lives  of  others. 

The  Bad  Boy. 

In  every  school  there  should  be  lines  of  preparation  for  the 
hand-minded  as  well  as  the  book-minded  boy.  In  our  bookish  schools, 
the  boy  who  does  not  fit  becomes  nervous  and  irritable.  His  very 
being  revolts  against  what  is  to  him  meaningless  abstration.  This 
type  of  boy  is  extremely  energetic,  and  must  express  himself  in  some 
manner  that  gives  to  himself  satisfaction.  The  ordinary  school  does 
not  provide  the  opportunity  except  through  truancy  and  worse  mis- 
behavior. Truant  officers  and  probation  officers  are  put  on  his  track. 


They  hound  him  about.  Much  effort  and  energy  are  put  forth  to 
make  him  fit  the  school.  Half  the  effort  to  make  the  school  fit  him 
might  solve  the  problem.  He  is  called  a  bad  boy.  A  bad  boy  is  simply 
a  misfit.  Bad  boys  are  often  the  best  boys  in  the  community.  They 
revolt  against  the  so-called  cultural  education.  Their  teachers  have 
failed  to  comprehend  them. 

These  proposals  aroused  considerable  opposition  in  the  com- 
munity, and  the  Superintendent  proposed  the  appointment  of  a  com- 
mission to  survey  the  schools.  This  commission  was  appointed  by 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  P.  P.  Claxton,  President 
J.  T.  Kingsbury  of  the  University  of  Utah,  and  Professor  Milton  Ben- 
nion  of  the  Utah  State  Normal  School.  They  in  turn  appointed  as  the 
Survey  Commission,  Professor  W.  S.  Deffenbaugh,  Specialist  in  School 
Administration  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education  at  Wash- 
ington, Professor  Edward  J.  Ward  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin, 
Superintendent  Charles  S.  Meek  of  the  Boise,  Idaho,  Schools,  Pro- 
fessor W.  G.  Roylance  of  the  University  of  Utah,  and  Professor 
George  A.  Eaton,  Principal  of  the  Salt  Lake  City  schools. 

These  men  worked  earnestly  and  vigorously  during  the  time 
that  they  were  in  Ogden,  but  their  time  was  limited  to  one  week. 

Following  is  a  copy  of  their  report: 

REPORT  OF  SCHOOL  SURVEY  COMMISSION. 

Ogden  City,  Utah,  May  llth,  1914. 
To  the  Board  of  Education  of  Ogden  City,  Utah. 

Gentlemen:  We  recognize  that  a  comprehensive  inquiry  into 
the  efficiency  of  any  public  school  system,  such  as  you  have  requested 
the  committee  to  make  fer  Ogden,  has  two  main  aspects,  first,  the 
aspect  in  which  the  school  system  is  considered  specifically  as  the 
actual  machinery  for  the  instruction  of  children,  and  second,  the 
aspect  in  which  it  is  considered  as  the  potential  machinery  for  the 
whole  community's  co-operation  in  an  educational  process  that  in- 
cludes also  the  systematic  organization  of  the  political,  economic,  and 
recreational  life  of  adults  and  older  youth.  On  account  of  shortness 
of  time,  the  committee  has  divided  its  labor,  allotting  to  three  of  its 
members,  Messrs.  Deffenbaugh,  Meek,  and  Eaton,  the  study  of  the 
public  school  system  under  the  former  aspect;  and  to  two  of  its 
members,  Messrs.  Roylance  and  Ward,  the  study  of  the  school  system 
under  the  latter  aspect;  and  we  beg  leave  to  submit  the  following 
report: 

School  Organization,  Curriculum,  and  Instruction. 
By  W.  S.  Deffenbaugh,  George  A.  Eaton,  Charles  S.  Meek. 

The  treatment  of  the  topics  alloted  to  us  partakes  more  of  the 
qualities  of  a  school  investigation  than  of  a  survey.  The  policy  of 
the  administration  in  organizing  sub-high  schools,  establishing  a 
very  liberal  elective  system  in  the  high  school,  and  reorganizing  the 
sub-high  schools  on  a  half  day  plan,  has  aroused  much  discussion  in 
your  city.  Our  report,  therefore,  may  appear  to  give  undue  emphasis 
to  these  phases  of  administration. 


School  Board  and  Superintendent. 

Your  committee  has  been  asked  to  define  the  relationship  that 
should  exist  between  a  school  board  and  the  superintendent  of  schools, 
and  between  the  individual  members  of  the  board  and  the  superin- 
tendent. The  following  is  our  report: 

Legally  the  power  of  a  school  board  when  in  session  as  a  board 
is  supreme,  but  when  not  in  session,  the  individual  member  is  only 
a  citizen;  hence  he  has  no  right  to  attempt  to  dictate  school  policies 
or  to  listen  to  complaints  from  principals,  teachers,  or  parents.  All 
such  should  be  referred  to  the  superintendent.  An  individual  board 
member  does  not  have  even  the  authority  of  the  lowest  paid  employe, 
unless  the  board  by  resolution  has  delegated  him  to  exercise  authority 
in  certain  matters.  A  board  of  education  should  employ  a  superin- 
tendent of  schools  to  act  as  its  executive  officer.  To  him  it  should 
delegate  the  authority  to  nominate  teachers  and  recommend  their  dis- 
missal, to  select  text  books,  to  formulate  courses  of  study,  to  recom- 
mend increases  in  teachers'  salaries  for  efficient  service,  and  to  have 
general  supervision  of  instruction.  The  affairs  of  the  school  board 
are  largely  matters  of  business.  A  somewhat  similar  relation  should 
exist  between  a  board  of  education  and  the  superintendent  of  schools 
as  exists  between  a  board  of  bank  directors  and  the  cashier  of  the 
bank,  or  as  exists  between  a  board  of  directors  of  a  hospital  and  the 
superintendent  of  the  hospital. 

The  superintendent  should  be  the  head  of  the  system  and  not  a 
figurehead  to  be  ignored  by  employees  of  the  board.  The  highest 
compliment  that  can  be  paid  a  superintendent  is  that  he  will  not  be 
dictated  to  by  individual  members  of  the  board  or  by  politicians  who 
wish  to  exploit  the  public  schools;  that  he  exacts  obedience  from  his 
teachers;  and  that  he  will  not  permit  disloyalty. 

Your  committee  commends  the  stand  taken  by  the  school  board 
of  Ogden  in  the  management  of  your  schools,  whereby  the  superin- 
tendent is  permitted  to  be  the  head  of  the  school  system.  Any  other 
plan  is  to  be  condemned. 

The  School  Plant. 

The  commission  finds  that  the  school  plants  in  the  city  of  Ogden 
are  not  up  to  the  standard  of  cities  of  the  same  size  in  other  parts  of 
the  country.  From  the  standpoint  of  school  hygiene  and  sanitation  the 
Madison  School  is  unfit  to  house  school  activities. 

Below  the  High  School  there  are  150  class  rooms.  Of  these  only 
31  have  a  fair  system  of  ventilation.  No  building  in  your  city,  not 
even  the  High  School,  has  an  automatic  thermostat  system  of  control. 
You  have  21  rooms  in  basements  used  as  class  rooms.  If  the  city  of 
Ogden  were  under  a  system  of  State  sanitary  control,  the  Madison 
building  would  be  condemned.  The  Dee,  the  Five  Points,  and 
Central  Junior  High  are  not  up  to  any  accepted  standard  from  the 
standpoint  of  sanitation  and  hygiene. 

The  city  of  Ogden  has  not  done  its  duty  to  its  children  in  furnish- 
ing adequate  buildings  and  equipment.  It  has  but  a  $195,000  school 
bond,  with  a  bonding  limit  of  $441,735.00  Within  that  limit  it  can 
yet  vote  $246,735.00  Few  cities  in  this  growing  Western  country  have 
so  low  bonded  indebtedness,  and  such  a  broad  margin  for  the  voting 
of  additional  bonds.  The  city  should  immediately  awaken  to  the 
duty  it  owes  to  its  children. 


Average  Enrollment  of  Pupils  per  Teacher — Average  Salaries. 

In  the  city  of  Ogden  grades  seven  and  eight  are  organized  into 
three  sub-high  schools.  Grades  one  to  six  are  termed  elementary 
schools. 

The  average  salary  of  the  teachers  in  the  sub-high  schools  is 
$841.00.  The  enrollment  of  pupils  per  teacher  in  the  sub-high  schools 
is  29.  The  average  salary  of  teachers  in  the  elementary  school  is 
$649.00.  The  average  enrollment  per  teacher  in  the  first  grade  is 
50,  in  the  second  48,  in  the  third  44,  in  the  fourth  36,  in  the  fifth  36,  and 
in  the  sixth  37. 

The  average  enrollment  of  pupils  per  teacher  in  the  first  grade 
is  almost  double  that  of  the  eighth  grade.  The  large  number  of  pupils 
in  the  first  three  grades  necessitates  an  arrangement  whereby,  one 
group  of  pupils  attend  school  in  the  forenoon  and  another  in  the 
afternoon.  This  policy  of  half-day  attendance  of  children  in  the  first 
three  grades  may  be  accepted  because  of  over-crowded  condition  of 
schools,  but  it  should  not  be  dopted  as  permanent  educational  policy, 
though  there  is  educational  authority  for  half-day  sessions  in  the  first 
primary  grade. 

The  salaries  of  teachers  in  the  elementary  schools  (grades  one  to 
six)  average,  $192.00  less  than  teachers  of  the  sub-high  schools.  Eighty- 
two  teachers  in  the  elementary  schools  have  salaries  ranging  from 
$700.00  maximum  to  $300.00  minimum.  These  relatively  lower  salaries 
mean  that  very  large  numbers  of  young  teachers  with  limited  exper- 
ience and  limited  professional  training  are  in  the  primary  grades. 
Furthermore  each  of  these  teachers  is  intrusted  with  a  much  largei 
number  of  pupils  than  in  sub-high  schools. 

The  Commission  does  not  believe  that  the  sub-high  school  teachers 
should  have  more  pupils  per  teacher  and  be  paid  less,  but  that  the 
elementary  schools  should  immediately  be  given  more  teachers,  and 
salaries  so  increased  that  teachers  of  extended  training  and  long  ex- 
perience may  be  attracted  to  this  department,  which  is  certainly  as 
important  as  any  other  part  of  the  system. 

The  Teaching  Force. 

Ogden  does  not  present  a  situation  regarding  teachers  materially 
different    from    that    of    many    cities    throughout    the    country.      The 
necessity  for  professional  training  of  teachers  has  long  been   recog 
nized.     The   average   salary  for   teachers   in   the   eight   grades   of   the 
Ogden  schools  for  the  past  four  years  has  been: 

Grades   1 
Year  High  School  to  8  inc. 

1910-1911  $1,004.00  $547.66 

1911-1912  1,040.00  591.16 

1912-1913  1,070.37  629.44 

1913-1914  1,140.83  098.28 

This  low  salary  schedule  necessarily  means  that  a  high  standard  of 
professional  efficiency  is  impossible.  The  increase  of  salary  during 
four  years  demonstrates  that  the  school  management  has  recognized 
the  necessity  for  raising  the  standard. 

The  Commission  has  investigated  the  educational  equipment  of 
the  present  teaching  force  to  determinate  the  extent  of  the  academic 
and  professional  training  the  teachers  have  acquired  beyond  the 
usual  high  school  courses.  It  finds  that  no  teacher  is  employed  who 


has  not  had  at  least  some  training  beyond  the  high  school.  Ten  have 
attended  summer  schools,  10  have  had  one  half  year's  college  or 
summer  school  training,  54  have  had  one  year,  48  two  years,  9  three 
year,  25  four  years,  11  five  years  and  more. 

For  the  eight  grades  the  present  standard  of  eligibility  is  two 
years  of  college  or  normal  training  beyond  the  high  school.  Candi- 
dates for  positions  in  the  high  school  must  be  graduates  of  standard 
colleges.  In  the  high  school  at  present  all  teachers  are  college  grad- 
uates, except  the  teachers  of  art,  music  and  manual  training,  who  have 
had  training  in  special  schools.  The  teachers  of  household  economics 
have  college  degrees.  These  facts  demonstrate  that  the  school  author- 
ities recognize  the  necessity  of  professionally  trained  teachers,  and 
have  already  reached  a  standard  which  is  distinctive  when  considered 
in'  the  light  of  low  salaries  paid. 

Particularly  commendable  is  the  policy  of  the  school  board  to  in- 
crease salaries  of  the  present  force,  as  they  present  their  certificates 
showing  they  have  pursued  college  extension  courses.  Eight-seven 
are  now  doing  college  extension  work,  certificates  for  successful 
completion  of  which  will  be  factors  in  determining  salaries  for  next 
year. 

Retardation  and  Elimination  of  Pupils. 
Table  One. 

A  comparison  with  respect  to  retardation  was  instituted  between 
Ogden  and  386  other  cities  on  the  scale  of  1,000  pupils  in  the  first 
grade.  The  eight  grades  are  designated  by  the  figures  1  to  8;  the 
high  school  is  designated  by  the  Roman  numerals  I  to  IV. 

386  Cities- 


Grade—    1.         2.       3.       4.       5.       6.       7.       8.        I.       II.      III.     IV. 
1,000    723    692    640    552    462    368    263     189     123      81       56 

Ogden  City- 
Grade—    1.         2.       3.       4.       5.       6.       7.       8.     T       U.      III.     IV. 
1,000    777    766    762    660    632    589    458    362    186    102      91 

Table  One  shows  the  comparison  of  the  grade  distribution  of  pu- 
pils in  the  Ogden  City  schools  with  that  of  386  cities  as  compiled  by 
Doctor  Leonard  Ayres,  of  the  Russel  Sage  Foundation.  The  2,421,988 
pupils  distributed  throughout  the  grades  of  these  cities  were  arranged 
in  a  scale  of  1,000  in  the  first  grade  and  the  proper  fraction  of  that 
scale  for  each  of  the  twelve  grades.  Measured  by  this  scale/  the  city 
of  Ogden  makes  a  favorable  showing,  particularly  for  the  first  eight 
grades.  For  every  1,000  in  the  primary  grades,  Ogden  has  458  in  the 
eighth  grades,  while  the  368  cities  have  263  in  the  eighth  grades.  The 
high  school  does  not  show  as  favorably  but  is  above  the  Ayres'  scale. 
For  every  1,000  in  the  first  primary  grade,  Ogden  has  91  in  the  fourth 
year  of  high  school,  while  the  368  cities  have  but  56.  The  fact  that 
the  high  school  does  not  retain  as  large  a  relative  number  of  pupils 
as  do  the  grades,  may  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  there  are  in  Ogden 
two  other  secondary  schools — Weber  Academy,  the  enrollment  of 
which  is  400,  and  the  Sacred  Heart  Academy,  the  enrollment  of  which 
is  260. 


10 


TABLE  TWO. 
Ogden  Public  Schools. 

All  Schools. 


AGE 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

1. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

Totals 

Five 

219 

219 

Six 

487 

103 

i 

591 

Seven 

127 

371 

81 

7 

686 

Eight 

26 

158 

801 

93 

1 

679 

Nine 

5 

29 

185 

281 

68 

2 

570 

Ten 

8 

69 

186 

225 

74 

3 

565 

Eleven 

3 

22 

63 

173 

183 

55 

1 

500 

Twelve 

4 

22 

H 

167 

162 

50 

1 

486 

Thirteen 

5 

34 

100 

172 

131 

25 

467 

Fourteen 

3 

4 

22 

95 

138 

90 

352 

Fifteen 

11 

29 

61 

135 

33 

269 

Sixteen 

2 

6 

23 

61 

67 

20 

6 

182 

Seventeen 

1 

8 

4 

40 

43 

29 

120 

Eighteen 

5 

7 

23 

31 

66 

Nineteen 

19 

7 

14 

40 

Twenty 

1 

1 

2 

Over 
Twenty 

5 

5 

TOTALS 

864 

672 

663 

(560 

585 

561 

523 

407 

322 

166 

93 

83 

5599 

No.  above 
Normal 
Age 

31 

40 

95 

93 

118 

135 

131 

87 

71 

66 

30 

20 

917 

%  above 
Normal 
Age 

.035 

059 

.143 

.14 

.20 

.24 

.25 

.21 

.22 

.39 

.32 

.18 

.198 

September  1,  1913,  basis  of  calculation. 


11 


Table  Two. 

Table  Two  shows  the  extent  to  which  children  are  retarded  or  are" 
above  the  normal  age  to  which  they  belong. 

In  an  investigation  of  318  cities  of  the  United  States  it  was  dis- 
covered that  one-half  of  the  cities  had  more  than  36  per  cent  of  their 
children  over  age  for  the  grade  in  which  they  were  found.  In  the 
City  of  Ogden,  in  the  present  year,  but  19  per  cent  of  the  children  are 
over  age.  This  is  a  very  favorable  indication  as  to  the  successful 
handling  of  the  problems  of  retardation.  (Table  Two  on  page  6). 

Table  Three. 


Age 

Census 

School 
Enrollment 

Number 
out  of 
School 

Six  years  

..1  155 

589 

566 

Seven  years   .  .  . 

683 

597 

86 

Eight  years    

598 

589 

9 

Nine  years    ... 

646 

580 

66 

Ten  years 

581 

572 

9 

Eleven  years    

510 

502 

8 

Twelve  years   

586 

536 

50 

Thirteen   years 

528 

433 

95 

Fourteen  years    

495 

378 

117 

Fifteen  years   ... 

.    .  .                 496 

314 

182 

Sixteen   years    

506 

242 

264 

Seventeen  years       

.      .                 502 

193 

309 

Eighteen  vears   . 

577 

106 

471 

Totals 7,863 


5,631 


2,232 


Table  Three. 

Table  Three  shows  the  age  distribution  of  pupils  and  the  number 
out  of  school  for  each  age.  The  students  in  the  two  church  schools 
and  resident  were  added  to  the  attendance  of  those  in  the  public 
schools,  and  the  children  of  each  age  were  subtracted  from  the 
number  of  like  age  from  the  school  census.  A  study  of  the  table 
shows  the  following:  Children  12  years  of  age,  but  9  per  cent  are 
eliminated;  of  these  thirteen  years  of  age,  16  per  cent;  of  these  14 
years  of  age,  23  per  cent;  15  years  of  age,  38  per  cent;  16  years  of  age, 
52  per  cent;  of  17  years  of  age,  61  per  cent  and  of  18  years  of  age,  81 
per  cent.  The  large  per  cent  of  elimination  of  boys  and  girls  17  and 
18  years  of  age  is  caused  by  graduation  from  the  high  school  or  acad- 
emy. These  two  comparisons  show  that  the  Ogden  schools  retain  a 
large  proportion  of  the  children  until  graduation  from  the  high 
school. 

For  the  318  cities  of  which  figures  are  available,  one-half  have 
more  than  20  per  cent  of  their  children  eliminated  by  the  time  the  fifth 
grade  is  reached,  and  more  than  50  per  cent  eliminated  by  the  time 
the  eighth  grade  is  reached.  The  City  of  Ogden  has  no  figures  to 
show  definitely  the  grade  elimination,  but  it  does  eliminate  52  per 
cent  at  the  age  of  16.  By  this  time  the  great  majority  of  children  are 
far  beyond  the  eighth  grade,  and  some  of  them  have  reached  their 
senior  year  in  high  school.  Few  citites  can  make  a  better  showing  of 
retention  of  pupils  in  school  and  a  smaller  per  cent  of  those  who  have 
been  eliminated  from  school  in  the  early  elementary  grades. 


12 

4 

Average  Cost  Per  Capita. 

The  following  tables  represent  the  relative  cost  of  elementary  and 
high  school  educated  in  groups  of  cities  selected  for  the  most  part 
from  cities  of  25,000  to  100,000  population.  Some  larger  Western  cities 
were  selected.  Had  the  list  of  cities  been  continued  to  twice  the 
number,  the  same  story  would  have  been  told,  revealing  that  is  Ogden 
is  considerably  below  the  average  in  per  capita  cost  of  education  in 
both  elementary  and  high  schools. 

Average  Cost  Per  Capita  Per  Annum  for  Elementary  Schools. 

1.  Berkeley,  California $51.32 

2.  New  Rochelle,  N.  Y 49.51 

3.  Clinton,  la 48.47 

4.  Oakland,  California    43.64 

5.  Newton,  Mass 41.41 

6.  Spokane,  Washington    41.05 

7.  East  Orange,  N.  J 40.54 

8.  San  Diego,  California   39.64 

9.  Riverside,   California 41.24 

10.  Fresno,  California 39.42 

11.  Salt  Lake  City,  Utah  38.34 

12.  Hampton,  N.  J 37.41 

13.  Quincy,  Mass 37.15 

14.  Holyoke,  Mass 37.41 

15.  Troy,  N.  Y 37.40 

16.  Springfield,  111 37.19 

17.  Santa  Cruz,  California 37.00 

18.  Tacoma,  Washington  36.32 

19.  Pawtucket,  R.  1 36.85 

20.  Fresno,  Cal 36.14 

21.  Newark,  N.  J 35.44 

22.  Denver,  Colorado   ' 35.04 

23.  Eureka,  California 35.32 

24.  Saginaw,  Michigan   34.07 

25.  Youngstown,  Ohio   34.94 

26.  Bayonne,  N.  J 34.07 

27.  Utica,  N.  Y 34.61 

28.  Meridian,  Conn.  . .  . 33.08 

29.  Topeka,  Kansas  33.66 

30.  Elmira,  N.  Y 33.69 

31.  Evansville,  Indiana 33.38 

32.  Dayton,  Ohio   33.54 

33.  Saginaw,  West  Side,   Michigan 32.41 

34.  New  Bedford,  Mass.  32.58 

35.  Sioux  City,  la 32.61 

36.  East  St.  Louis,  Mo 31.03 

37.  South  Bend,  Indiana   32.27 

38.  Fitchburg,  Mass 31.33 

39.  OGDEN,  UTAH    30.37 

40.  LaCross,  Wisconsin   30.64 

41.  Decatur,  111 29.25 

42.  Ithaca,  N.  Y 29.65 

43.  New  Luchet,  Conn 29.59 

44.  Altoona,  Pa.   .  . 28.22 

45.  Sheboygan,   Wisconsin    28.29 

46.  York,  Pa.   . .  : 28.02 

47.  Elizabeth,  N.  Y 28.77 


13 


Average  Cost  Per  Capita  Per  Annum  for  Secondary  Schools. 

1.  Niagara,  N.  Y .$101.20 

2.  Seattle,  Washington   101.00 

3.  Bayonne,  N.  J 100.00 

4.  San  Diego,  California   99.04 

5.  East  Orange,  N.  J 9870 

6.  Evansville,  Ind 92.78 

7.  Newark,  N.  J 89.50 

8.  Watertown,  N.  J 87.75 

9.  Dayton,  Ohio  86.87 

10.  New  Rochelle,  N.  Y 86.56 

11.  Riverside,   California    85.33 

12.  Pueblo,  Colorado 85.35 

13.  Spokane,  Washington    82.78 

14.  East  St.  Louis,  Mo 82.75 

15.  Fresno,  California  82.32 

16.  El  Paso,  Texas   81.35 

17.  Cambridge,  Mass 79.98 

18.  Muskogee,  Okla 79.83 

19.  Troy,  N.  Y 79.93 

20.  Hampton,  N.  Y 79.50 

21.  Yonkers,  N.  Y 79.70 

22.  Montgomery,  Ala 79.63 

23.  Santa  Cruz,  Cal 79.63 

24.  Salt   Lake   City,  Utah 79.19 

25.  Rockford,  111 78.83 

26.  San  Jose,  California  78.75 

27.  Hoboken,  N.  J 75.80 

28.  Elizabeth,  N.  J 75.40 

29.  Torrington,  Conn 75.14 

30.  Eureka,   California    75.09 

31.  New  Bedford,  N.  Y 75.00 

32.  Denver,  Colorado    72.93 

33.  Decatur,   111 69.74 

34.  Waterbury,  Conn 69.73 

35.  Tacoma,  Washington   69.66 

36.  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y 69.44 

37.  Evansville,  Indiana 69.09 

38.  Auburn,  N.  Y 68.89 

39.  Utica,  N.  Y 68.67 

40.  Maldon,  Mass 68.55 

41.  New  Port,  R.  1 66.38 

42.  Bayonne,  N.  J 65.14 

43.  Cairo,    111 64.21 

44.  Everett,  Mass 64.00 

45.  OGDEN,  UTAH  60.83 

46.  Fitchburg,  Mass 56.24 

47.  Canton,  Ohio    55.30 

48.  Topeka,  Kansas  54.93 

49.  Altoona,  Pa.,  53.09 

50.  Green  Bay,  Wisconsin  52.25 

51.  Kingstown,  N.  J 50.64 


14 

COURSE  OF  STUDY— ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS. 

Your  committee  has  not  attempted  to  make  a  thorough  study  of 
every  phase  of  the  curriculum,  but  only  of  those  points  that  have  been 
the  subject  of  criticism. 

The  course  of  study  is  comprehensive  and  rich  in  educational 
subjects.  Many  useless  topics  have  been  eliminated,  but  the  funda- 
mentals have  been  retained  and  more  modern  material  introduced. 

The  printed  course  does  not  show  what  topics  of  arithmetic  are 
taught,  but  by  inquiring  of  teachers  we  find  that  the  four  fundamentals 
are  emphasized.  The  work  as  outlined  in  arithmetic  for  the  first  six 
grades  fits  in  with  the  work  of  the  seventh  as  well  as  in  other  courses 
of  study.  A  commendable  feature  is  that  no  formal  number  work  is 
required  of  children  in  the  first  primary  grade  and  only  a  limited 
amount  in  the  second  grade. 

The  course  in  language  for  the  primary  grades  emphasize  ex- 
pression through  story  telling,  and  dramatization.  In  the  Junior  High 
Schools  grades  emphasis  is  placed  upon  written  composition.  We  find 
more  than  the  usual  amount  of  time  given  to  this  form  of  composition, 
and  less  time  to  text-book  technical  grammar,  which  is  closely  co-ordi- 
nated with  the  work  in  composition.  This  makes  the  study  of  technical 
grammar  practical,  and  is  thoroughly  in  line  with  the  best  modern 
theory  and  practice. 

The  course  of  study  advises  that  reading  in  the  primary  grades 
be  taught  by  a  combination  method  of  the  strongest  points  of  the  sen- 
tence, action-word  and  phonic  methods,  all  of  which  are  important  in 
teaching  the  mechanics  of  reading.  The  phonic  system  is  likely  to  be 
unduly  emphasized,  but  from  what  we  have  been  able  to  observe  the 
amount  of  time  given  to  phonics  in  your  schools  is  not  excessive. 

The  subjects  of  history  and  geography  are  considered  as  one  sub- 
ject in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades.  We  believe  that  these  subjects 
should  be  closely  correlated,  but  we  doubt  whether  the  plan  has  been 
worked  out  as  well  as  it  might  be.  There  is  at  least  room  for  improve- 
ment. 

Provision  is  made  for  physical  training  by  means  of  plays,  games, 
and  drills.  This  method  is  in  thorough  accord  with  the  best  educa- 
tional thought  and  practice.  A  commendable  feature  is  the  introduc- 
tion of  folk  dancing. 

To  make  any  course  of  study  effective,  the  teacher  must  be  pro- 
vided with  the  best  text-books  obtainable.  The  text-books  used  in 
your  schools,  with  probably  one  or  two  exceptions,  are  admirably 
adapted  to  the  course  of  study.  Many  of  these  books  are  the  best  on 
the  market. 

Sub-High  Schools. 

We  wish  to  commend  the  school  board  for  establishing  sub-high 
schools.  These  schools  are  composed  of  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades  and  are  conducted  upon  the  departmental  plan,  a  subject  or 
two  being  assigned  each  teacher. 

In  this  country,  the  movement  at  present  is  strongly  toward  de- 
partmental instruction  in  the  upper  grammar  grades.  New  York  City 
was  probably  the  first  to  adopt  this  method  of  organization,  and  it  has 
proved  so  successful  that  three-fifths  of  the  grammar  schools  of  that 
city  are  now  so  organized.  School  men  throughout  the  country  ap- 
prove of  the  plan.  Many  of  them  have  adopted  it  and  others  are  pre- 
paring to  do  so.  Of  810  cities  replying  to  a  questionaire  recently 
submitted  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Education,  416  have  depart- 


15 

mental  instruction.  Of  these  416  cities,  240  report  a  lower  per  centage 
of  failures  since  the  introduction  of  this  method  of  instruction;  78 
report  more  failures  and  143  have  no  data;  250  find  a  larger  percentage 
entering  high  school,  while  61  find  no  increase;  302  report  that  the 
pupils  are  much  better  prepared  for  high  school  work;  and  only  34 
can  see  no  improvement.  We  shall  not  discuss  many  of  the  advan- 
tages of  the  system,  but  chiefly  the  criticisms  that  have  been  urged 
against  the  system  as  operated  in  your  city. 

We  find  no  evidence  that  the  pupils  in  your  sub-high  schools 
are  overworked.  Assignments  are  not  excessive.  We  wish  to  com- 
pliment the  teachers  upon  the  excellent  spirit  of  co-operation  that 
exists  between  them  and  their  pupils.  The  teachers  give  pupils  all 
the  individual  attention  necessary;  part  of  each  45-minute  period  is 
often  given  to  individual  instruction,  in  order  to  bring  backward  pupils 
up  to  grade.  The  discipline  in  each  of  your  sub-high  schools  is  excel- 
lent. The  changing  of  classes  every  45  minutes  gives  the  pupils  an 
opportunity  to  relax  for  a  few  minutes,  and  tends  to  improve  discipline. 

We  wish  to  call  your  attention  to  one  of  the  advantages  of  the 
system.  The  great  evil  in  the  grammar  grades  of  the  schools  of  our 
country  has  been  that  whenever  a  pupil  fails  in  one  or  two  subjects 
he  must  repeat  the  work  of  the  grade  for  another  year  or  half  year. 
This  is  discouraging  to  pupils  in  the  adolescent  stage  of  development. 
Too  many  of  those  compelled  to  repeat  subjects  in  which  they  have 
successfully  passed  drop  out  of  school.  Under  the  departmental  plan 
the  pupils  in  your  school  who  fail  in  one  or  two  subjects  are  not  re- 
quired to  repeat  those  subjects  in  which  they  have  made  a  passing 
grade,  but  are  permitted  to  take  up  new  subjects  with  a  higher  class 
and  required  to  repeat  only  those  in  which  they  have  failed. 

At  present  no  high  school  subjects  are  given  below  the  ninth 
grade.  Your  sub-high  schools  should  partake  more  of  the  nature  of 
junior  high  schools,  and  two  courses  should  be  offered — one  an 
academic  or  literary  course,  the  other  a  prevocational  course.  In  the 
literary  course  emphasis  should  be  placed  upon  the  subjects  usually 
taught  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades.  Such  subjects  as  algebra 
or  a  foreign  language  could  be  introduced.  In  the  prevocational  course 
emphasis  should  be  placed  upon  industrial  or  commercial  subjects,  but- 
in  no  way  should  the  essentials  in  the  usual  subjects  be  neglected.  At 
present  it  is  not  practicable  for  you  to  offer  extensive  work  in  a  pre- 
vocational course  as  you  would  need  more  equipment,  and  you  should 
have  more. 

Some  credit  could  be  given  for  work  done  outside  of  school,  but 
such  work  should  be  standardized  and  closely  supervised  by  the  school 
authorities,  and  it  should  in  no  way  exploit  children  for  the  sake  of 
productive  labor. 

The  best  educational  thought  favors  a  six-year  elementary  course 
and  a  six-year  high  school  course.  The  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Education  says:  "The  reason  for  grouping  the  twelve  years  of  ele- 
mentary and  secondary  into  six  years  of  elementary  and  six  years  of 
high  school  are  numerous.  I  know  no  valid  reasons  for  the  present 
plan  of  eight  and  four.  My  suggestion  is  that  there  should  be  six 
years  of  elementary  school  and  six  years  of  high  school,  the  high 
school  period  being  divided  into  two  sections  of  three  years  each; 
the  first  three  might  be  called  the  Junior  High  School,  the  second 
three  years  the  Senior  High  School." 

Several  years  ago  the  National  Education  Association  appointed  a 
committee  of  practical  school  men  to  investigate  the  subject  of  Econ- 
omy of  Time  in  Education.  This  committee  recommends  that  elemen- 


16 

tary  education  should  end  at  the  close  of  the  sixth  grade.  That  present 
educational  thought  regarding  a  six  year  elementary  course  and  a 
six-year  high  school  course,  may  be  more  fully  understood,  we  quote 
from  the  report  of  this  committee:  "There  is  a  very  widespread  belief 
among  school  men  that  the  fundamental  facts,  habits,  attitudes,  and 
ideals  demanded  by  the  generals  needs  of  our  civilization  can  be  fixed 
in  the  nervous  system  of  the  child  in  six  school  years,  particularly  if 
the  less  useful  parts  of  the  course  of  study  are  eliminated  and  more 
efficient  methods  are  introduced. 

"In  the  second  place,  the  compulsory-education  law  under  our 
present  organization  gives  society  control  of  the  child  only  long 
enough  to  guarantee  the  ablest  child  eight  years  of  general  training. 
It  cannot  guarantee  him  the  additional  years  of  vocational  education 
required  to  make  him  an  efficient,  self-supporting,  and  self-reliant 
citizen.  To  shorten  the  elementary  school  to  six  years  without  im- 
pairing its  efficiency  is  to  guarantee  every  child  who  does  not  go  to 
high  school  some  vocational  education.  The  need  to  guarantee  some 
vocational  education  to  the  retarded  pupils  is  so  important  that  many 
careful  students  of  social  conditions  are  ready  to  say  that  the  com- 
pulsory school  age  must  be  extended  to  16  years,  so  as  to  carry  the 
least  able  elementary  school  children,  who  now  get  no  further  than  the 
fourth,  fifth,  or  sixth  school  year,  through  one,  two  or  three  years  of 
vocational  education. 

"In  the  third  place,  the  six-year  articulation  is  regarded  not  only 
as  a  better  ending  point  for  the  general  elementary  studies,  but  as  a 
better  beginning  point  for  the  secondary  studies.  There  are  cer- 
tain inner  physiological  changes  that  usher  in  adolescense  that  now 
occur  at  about  the  time  when  the  average  child  makes  the  transition 
from  elementary  to  secondary  school.  The  strain  of  outer  and  inner 
conditions  are  more  or  less  coincident.  Therefore,  the  resulting 
school  mortality  is  likely  to  be  larger  than  it  ought  to  be;  or  school 
life  is  continued  at  a  larger  physical  and  nervous  cost  than  ought  to  be 
the  case.  It  would  be  a  distinct  gain  for  a  child  to  get  fairly  well 
started  and  adjusted  to  his  new  school  life,  vocational  or  secondary, 
before  the  full  weight  of  physiological  and  nervous  changes  are  thrust 
upon  him.  The  two  adjustments  can  be  better  cared  for  in  series  than 
together. 

"Again,  it  is  the  opinion  of  schoolmasters  in  general,  that,  to  those 
who  have  the  peculiar  mentality  to  go  on  to  the  ordinary  academic 
high  school,  it  is  decidedly  more  profitable  to  begin  the  foreign  lan- 
guages at  12  and  at  14  years  of  age.  The  same  advantage  may  be  had 
in  other  subjects  where  a  large  acquisition  of  facts  is  necessary  to  suc- 
cessful work. 

"In  the  case  of  those  children  who  are  more  given  to  action  than 
to  abstraction,  it  is  equally  profitable  to  begin  to  center  their  intellec- 
tual work  about  an  active  vocation  early.  To  begin  vocational  educa- 
tion with  its  practical  life-career  appeal,  at  12  rather  than  at  14  is  to 
save  many  children  from  truancy  and  disinterest.  It  will  extend  their 
school  life  so  that  they  will  not  be  too  early  driven  into  unprofitable 
and  futureless  employments.  They  will  still  take  up  much  general 
training  parallel  with  and  motivated  by  their  broad  study  of  vocational 
work. 

"Here  again  the  practicability  of  a  reorganized  elementary  school 
period  finds  adequate  sanction  in  experience.  We  have  only  to  turn  to 
the  concrete  efforts  in  this  direction  that  have  already  been  made  by 
American  schoolmen.  Such  experiments  as  have  been  tried  in  Amen 


17 

can  school  systems  under  practical  operating  conditions  prove  with 
certainty  that  the  elementary  school  may  be  reduced  to  seven  years; 
and  that  there  is  an  almost  equally  strong  probality  that  an  elementary 
school  of  six  years  would  be  fully  as  efficient.  Where  the  seven  years 
school  has  been  tried,  the  school  officials  very  generally  anticipate  a 
six-year  plan. 

"The  organization  of  junior  high  schools  out  of  the  two  upper 
grammar  grades  and  the  first-year  high  school  class  is  a  distinctly 
successful  move  in  the  same  direction.  Here  the  high  school  begins  to 
reach  down  into  the  grammar  school.  The  establishment  of  separate 
departmental  schools  in  the  elementary  system,  consisting  of  the  two 
upper  elementary  years  and  given  over  to  manual  activities,  is  the 
vocational  movement  beginning  to  claim  its  own  from  the  elementary 
school  system.  All  sorts  of  successful  experimentation  tending  to  re- 
strict the  general  elementary  curriculum  to  six  years  give  at  least  ten- 
tative, fragmentary  approval  to  the  practicality  of  the  plan  suggested." 

Educational  associations  every  where  are  endorsing  the  plan. 
Only  a  few  weeks  ago  the  Inland  Empire  Teachers'  Association,  com- 
posed of  the  teachers  of  Idaho,  Oregon,  and  Washington,  recom- 
mended that  the  schools  of  those  states  be  reorganized  with  six  years 
in  the  elementary  schools  and  six  in  the  high  school. 

The  movement  to  establish  Junior  High  Schools  in  your  city  we 
consider  a  great  step  forward  toward  the  improvement  of  your  schools. 
We  recommend  that  as  soon  as  practicable  your  sub-high  schools  be- 
come junior  high  in  the  real  sense  of  the  term,  and  include  the  ninth 
grade. 

Character  of  Teaching. 

The  classroom  work  on  the  whole  is  good;  it  is  much  better  than 
could  reasonably  be  expected  considering  the  fact  that  supervision 
under  the  existing  plan  is  necessarily  very  meagre.  Eighty  teachers 
were  visited  and  their  work  observed.  No  teacher  in  that  list  should 
be  classed  as  a  failure.  Most  of  them  are  doing  average  work  and  a 
few  are  accomplishing  unusual  results.  All  the  teachers  show  a  spirit 
of  co-operation  and  a  desire  to  contribute  their  part  toward  raising 
the  standard  of  teaching. 

There  is  an  absence  of  uniform  tests  throughout  the  grades  and 
the  sub-high  schools  which  should  be  corrected.  The  uniform  test 
given  from  time  to  time  and  particularly  upon  the  completion  of  the 
work  of  a  grade  or  a  semester  is  by  no  means  an  infallible  guide  in 
determining  efficiency,  but  it  does  act  as  a  salutary  spur  to  the  indif- 
ferent or  lagging  teacher  and  is  never  a  matter  of  dread  to  the  capable 
and  conscientious  one.  The  commission  agrees  that  the  teaching  in 
the  city  of  Ogden  should  be  carefully  standardized,  to  the  end  that 
more  definite  standards  of  achievement  for  each  grade  be  established; 
that  the  results  of  instruction  be  more  carefully  measured  by  the  use 
of  standard  tests  of  efficiency  such  as  the  Ayres  and  Thorndyke  scale 
in  writing,  the  Hillegas  scale  in  English,  and  the  Courtis  test  in  Arith- 
metic. 

Grade  Supervision. 

These  improvements  and  many  others  will  result  if  supervision  is 
made  more  effective.  The  plan  in  operation  is  thus  outlined  in  the 
course  of  study,  Ogden  City  Public  Schools,  1912-13. 


18 

Supervisors. 

"The  Supervisors  in  the  Ogden  Public  Schools  inspect  at  regular 
intervals  the  work  that  is  being  done  in  their  respective  departments, 
and  suggestions  are  made  to  the  principals  and  the  superintendent 
with  reference  to  the  way  those  subjects  are  conducted;  and  where 
necessity  demands  it,  the  supervisor  in  the  presence  of  the  principal  of 
the  school  will  offer  the  needed  corrections  to  teachers. 

"Each  grade  and  each  special  subject  has  a  supervisor.  These 
supervisors,  in  addition,  all  occupy  other  positions  either  as  head  of 
a  department  in  high  school  or  as  principal  of  one  of  the  grade 
schools  and  meetings  are  held  once  each  month  by  each  supervisor 
with  all  the  teachers  in  his  department.  In  fact  most  of  the  supervi- 
sion is  done  in  this  way.  In  all  cases  the  principal  is  supreme  in  his 
building,  and  the  supervisor  is  simply  an  advisory  person." 

It  does  not  appear  that  this  plan  can  produce  or  has  produced 
entirely  satisfactory  results.  In  the  first  place,  the  principal  of  a 
grade  school  or  the  head  of  a  department  in  a  high  school  may  be  fully 
equal  to  the  task  of  carrying  on  the  work  of  his  chosen  line  and  yet 
may  not  be  fitted  by  temperament  or  preparation  for  supervisory 
work  in  the  lower  grades.  It  would  only  be  natural  to  assume  that 
the  preparation  of  these  principals  has  been  adequate  for  the  position 
they  occupy  rather  than  for  the  secondary  or  delegated  one.  Hence 
the  qualifications  of  such  persons  for  grade  supervisorship  may  rightly 
be  called  in  question.  Moreover,  it  is  doubtful  if  they  can  approach 
the  work  in  the  proper  spirit  since  each  one  would  be  inclined  to  view 
it  as  secondary  to  that  of  his  own  school  or  department. 

The  limitations  of  time,  also,  so  important  a  theme  of  discussion 
in  this  report,  would  militate  against  such  a  division  of  supervisory 
labor.  This  has  been  proved  by  the  experience  of  the  past  year.  All 
prinicpals  who  have  expressed  themselves  on  the  working  possibilities 
of  this  plan  have  agreed  that  if  for  uo  other  reason  than  that  of  time, 
satisfactory  supervisory  results  under  this  system  can  not  be  obtained. 

The  commission  recommends  that  at  least  one  person  especially 
trained  be  employed  to  carry  on  the  work  of  ordinary  grade  supervi- 
sion up  to  the  sub-high  schools.  The  principal  thus  relieved  of  the 
work  and  responsibility  of  special  grade  supervision  over  the  city, 
might  devote  this  time  to  direct  teaching  within  his  school.  In  the 
opinion  of  the  commission  this  change  would  be  welcomed  by  both 
principals  and  teachers;  it  should  entail  no  extra  cost  and  would  ad- 
vance the  standard  of  efficiency  all  along  the  line. 

Half  Day  Plan. 

The  half  day  plan  of  school  organization  as  set  forth  by  the 
superintendent  is  as  follows: 

The  quotation  is  from  Superintendent  Mills  in  reply  to  a  list  of  ques- 
tions propounded  by  the  Commission. 

"The  school  according  to  the  half  day  session  would  have  four 
units  of  accredited  study  in  one  half  day  and  the  other  half  day  would 
be  made  up  of  music,  art,  study,  sewing,  cooking,  manual  training, 
bookbinding,  and  physical  culture.  A  large  study  hall  with  a  super- 
vising teacher  in  charge  in  control  of  large  groups  of  students  in  place 
of  the  present  small  groups.  Also  music  could  be  handled  in  large  sec- 
tions. This  would  save  a  number  of  teachers.  Manual  training  and 
sewing  have  sufficient  equipment  for  30  pupils  at  a  time.  Two  hours 
a  day  is  all  that  we  would  be  prepared  to  devote  to  the  purely  indus- 
trial work.  The  rest  of  the  half  day  would  be  devoted  to  the  social 


19 

studies,  including  music,  art,  physical  culture  and  study  hall.  The  or- 
ganization of  this  plan  would  be  a  big  financial  saving  to  the  school 
system  and  would  also  increase  the  efficiency.  We  could  organize  a 
school  of  500  students,  250  in  each  half  day,  shifted  to  the  other  half 
day  for  the  other  class  of  work  as  follows:  250  take  academic  work  in 
the  forenoon.  In  round  numbers  125  boys  and  125  girls.  This  would 
make  eight  classes  of  31  students  each.  Eight  teachers  would  give 
these  students  their  academic  work  in  the  forenoon  and  the  other 
group  in  the  afternoon.  The  study  hall  would  hold  about  150  students 
who  could  study  an  hour  or  an  hour  and  a  half  in  the  afternoon  at  one 
time  or  at  two  different  times  under  one  teacher,  while  the  other  one- 
hundred  students — 50  boys  and  50  girls  might  take  music,  art,  physical 
culture,  manual  training,  and  sewing  under  two  or  more  teachers.  The 
eight  teachers  in  the  morning  plus  three  special  teachers  in  the  after- 
noon plus  the  study  hall  director  would  make  12  teachers  handling 
500  students.  When  one  class  of  these  special  students  has  finished  its 
rounds,  it  can  be  returned  to  the  study  hall  (a  general  clearing  house), 
and  another  group  given  their  work.  These  larger  groups  would  save 
in  teachers'  salaries  considerable  money.  We  now  have  from  13  to  15 
teachers  in  each  building  for  each  300  students.  We  have  enough 
manual  training  and  sewing  equipment  to  carry  out  this  plan.  I  do  not 
mean  to  convey  the  idea  that  we  could  not  use  more  or  that  we  would 
not  get  more.  This  plan  then  of  the  double  half  day  system  of 
academic  work  and  industrial,  social  and  physical  work  would  provide 
smaller  classes  in  the  academic  work,  increasing  the  efficiency  and 
larger  lasses  in  study  hall,  music,  physical  culture,  etc.,  increasing  the 
efficiency  there,  the  whole  decreasing  the  expenditures.  This,  of 
course,  is  on  the  assumption  that  all  boys  and  girls  will  be  in  school 
both  sessions  for  longer  hours." 

We  must  take  issue  with  the  superintendent  in  respect  to  the 
plan  as  being  unpedagogical,  unnecessary,  and  well  nigh  impossible  of 
realization.  In  the  first  place,  no  teacher  can  sustain  for  any  length 
of  time  the  mental  and  physical  strain  incident  to  teaching  daily  eight 
forty-five-minute  classes  of  31  pupils  each.  In  addition  to  the  work 
of  the  class  room,  there  would  naturally  be,  in  all  grades  except  the 
very  lowest,  a  certain  amount  of  written  work  to  be  passed  in  daily,  or 
at  stated  intervals.  This  would  call  for  correction  and  return  to  the 
pupils.  Clerical  work  of  this  type  is  conceded  as  essential  to  correct 
teaching.  Even  the  minimum  of  this  character  of  work,  with  250  pupils 
daily,  would  be  a  stupendous  task  in  itself.  The  thorough  preparation 
of  the  lesson  by  the  teacher  in  all  its  phases  of  development  is  another 
very  important  element  in  good  teaching.  This  also  takes  time;  in  fact, 
it  should  take  much  more  time  than  it  does  under  the  ordinary  or 
present  plan.  It  would  seem  that  the  dynamic  energy,  mental  and 
physical,  of  a  teacher  would  have  to  be  doubled  in  order  that  good 
teaching  under  this  scheme  should  obtain.  Otherwise  the  teacher 
would  simply  be  compelled,  for  self-preservation,  to  slight  her  work 
to  the  point  of  inefficiency.  It  is  doubtful  even  then  whether  the  mere 
routine  of  teaching  in  any  way  eight  45-minute  classes  of  31  pupils 
each,  day  in  and  day  out,  would  not  utterly  exhaust  her  vitality. 

In  this  connection  nothing  has  been  said  of  that  most  important 
of  all  principles  in  successful  teaching — individual  instruction.  Class 
instruction  to  be  efficient  must  be  supplemented  by  that  of  the  in- 
dividual. The  teacher  in  her  period  of  preparation  for  the  lesson  of 
the  coming  day  must  have  in  mind  certain  individuals  in  her  class, 
whose  interest  must  be  awakened  and  whose  comprehension  of  the 
subject  matter  must  be  facilitated  or  made  possible  by  presenting  the 
subject  in  a  peculiar  or  extraordinary  way.  She  should  have  some 


20 

time  within  the  school  day  to  give  individual  instruction  to  those 
pupils  whose  grasp  has  not  been  as  ready  as  that  of  others.  This  has 
no  reference  to  sub-normal  pupils,  who  should,  of  course,  be  segre- 
gated and  have  peculiar  attention  and  instruction  by  special  teachers — 
but  to  the  rank  and  file  of  school  children. 

The  above  findings  are  all  on  the  assumption  that  the  teacher  has 
but  one  subject  lesson  to  teach  every  one  of  the  eight  periods.  If 
she  had  more  than  one  subject  lesson  to  teach,  the  task  would  ob- 
viously be  greater. 

As  to  the  pupils,  the  experience  of  teachers  has  been  that  four 
consecutive  periods  of  recitation  on  four  different  subjects  is  not  as 
satisfactory  as  where  a  relaxation  or  study  period  intervenes;  e.  g., 
two  recitations — one  study  period — two  recitations;  and  the  school 
programs  of  high  school  and  sub-high  school  pupils  are  thus  arranged 
whenever  possible.  The  average  boy  or  girl  does  not  differ  from  the 
adult  in  this  particular.  The  mind  needs  some  time  to  do  its  assorting 
and  composing  after  it  has  received  the  consignment  of  material. 

For  the  sake  of  clearness  we  may  issue  from  the  plan  as  outlined 
that  not  more  than  half,  or  125,  of  the  afternoon  pupils  are  in  the 
study  hall  at  any  one  time;  the  others  would  be  distributed  in  classes 
of  41  among  three  teachers,  who  are  to  give  them  training  in  music, 
art,  physical  culture,  manual  training,  and  sewing.  Here  again  arises  a 
difficulty.  The  classes  are  much  too  large  for  efficient  instruction,  un- 
less it  be  in  music  and  physical  culture.  Moreover,  it  is  not  an  easy 
matter  to  find  three  teachers  who  could  combine  in  the  teaching  of 
these  diversified  subjects.  We  might  reasonably  look  for  teachers 
who  could  give  instruction  equally  well  in  arithmetic,  grammar,  and 
history,  since  the  scope  of  general  school  training  has  naturally  cov- 
ered these  branches;  but  the  lines  of  work  referred  to  are  special  in 
their  nature  and  a  teacher  who  has  fitted  herself  to  teach  in  one  of 
them  is  rarely  equipped  to  give  instruction  in  any  of  the  others. 

To  summarize  on  this  point:  The  proposition  to  assign  the  work 
of  teaching  500  pupils  to  12  teachers  who  are  to  work  eight  45-minute 
periods  each  day  from  nine  to  twelve  in  the  morning  and  from  one  to 
four  in  the  afternoon  is,  to  say  the  least,  impracticable  from  every 
point  of  view. 

With  the  exception  of  the  high  school,  which  has  admirable  facili- 
ties in  rooms  and  equipment  for  domestic  science  and  domestic  art, 
the  physical  limitations  in  buildings  and  equipment  are  entirely  inade- 
quate for  carrying  on  instruction  in  manual  training  and  domestic 
science,  even  under  the  present  system,  where  such  instruction  is  con- 
fined to  the  high  school  and  the  three  sub-high  schools.  These  sub- 
jects should  not  only  be  amplified  and  enriched  in  these  schools,  but 
the  work  in  more  elementary  form  should  be  given  at  least  as  low  as 
the  fifth  and  sixth  grades.  To  do  this  will  entail  considerable  expense 
in  the  proper  equipment  and  refitting  of  rooms,  but  it  will  be  money 
well  spent  and  will  be  amply  repaid  to  the  community  in  the  increased 
efficiency  of  the  school  product.  The  industrial  phase  of  community 
education  is  no  longer  in  the  experimental  stage.  It  is  here  and  here 
to  stay.  But  the  training  of  the  hand  should  be  combined  with  that  of 
the  head  in  an  intelligent  and  systematic  manner.  Nor  should  the 
work  in  the  industrial  arts  be  relegated  to  some  dingy  basement  room, 
which  had  probably  served  time  as  a  coal-bin  or  junk  closet.  It  should 
be  made  pleasant  in  its  surroundings  and  should  be  clothed  with  all 
the  attractiveness  of  class  room  work  in  other  subjects. 

The  dignity  of  labor  is  and  should  always  be  the  big  plank  in  the 
platform  of  every  child's  education,  but  to  place  the  mere  earning  of 
money  by  the  boy  or  girl  during  the  school  life  as  a  meritorious 


21 

achievement  is  of  doubtful  value  educationally,  and  may  have  a  posi- 
tively demoralizing  effect  on  the  character  and  habits  of  the  child. 
Every  home  may  provide  all  the  necessary  diversion  in  the  way  of 
household  duties  for  either  boy  or  girl  to  satisfy  the  "dignity  of 
labor"  requirement.  In  point  of  fact  some  homes  are  requiring  so 
much  home  work  that  not  sufficient  time  is  left  for  study.  This  is 
especially  true  in  the  case  of  girls  from  poor  families.  Until  the  eco- 
nomic needs  of  a  community  call  upon  the  schools  for  help,  there  can 
be  no  occasion  for  a  radical  change  in  the  scheme  of  school  attendance, 
which  would  be  justified  only  on  the  assumption  that  such  a  call  had 
been  made. 

The  Elective  System. 

The  best  authorities  on  secondary  education  are  practically  a 
unit  in  their  advocacy  of  a  certain  amount  of  elective  work  in  the  high 
school.  Where  these  authorities  may  differ  is  in  the  maunt  of  elec- 
tive work  thus  permitted,  the  manner  in  which  the  choice  of  studies 
is  made,  and  in  the  recognition  given  for  the  work.  In  an  impartial 
consideration  of  this  subject  we  should  not  view  the  high  school 
merely  as  a  means  of  preparation.  This  is  one  of  its  functions,  but 
probably  the  least  of  them.  The  high  school  of  today  has  been  appro- 
priately termed  "The  People's  College,"  and  its  first  and  principal  rea- 
son for  existence  and  for  community  support  is  beacuse  it  affords  a 
training  in  keeping  with  the  needs  of  the  community.  "The  greatest 
good  to  every  child"  should  ever  be  the  animating  motive  in  all  its 
instructions.  The  broadening  of  the  curriculum  of  the  modern  high 
school  is  all  in  this  direction.  Within  comparatively  recent  years 
courses  in  manual  training,  domestic  science,  domestic  art,  work  in 
copper,  brass  and  leather,  bookbinding,  printing,  agriculture,  horticul- 
ture and  a  host  of  other  subjects  have  been  added  to  the  high  school 
family.  The  high  school  with  the  so-called  traditional  course  of 
studies  and  "hew  to  line"  methods  as  its  only  offering  would  rightly 
be  considered  an  anachronism  today. 

Yet  in  the  delight  of  freedom  from  bondage  there  is  grave  danger 
of  license.  The  pupil  upon  entering  high  school — if  this  is  impossible 
before — should  be  made  acquainted  with  the  purpose  and  trend  of 
each  study  and  each  course,  where  separate  courses  are  offered.  The 
selection  of  his  studies  should  be  made,  whenever  possible,  and  it  is 
usually  possible,  by  the  pupil  himself  only  after  conference  with  a 
teacher  adviser  and  with  his  parents.  At  this  beginning  stage  there 
should  be  no  difference  of  opinion.  The  teachers'  part  in  this  pro- 
ceeding is  to  advise,  not  to  require.  The  pupil  is  looking  forward  to 
his  future,  but  often  with  a  very  vague  notion  of  where  this  or  that 
road  will  lead  him.  The  teacher  has  traveled  the  road  and  his  retro- 
spect is  safer  as  a  guiding  force  than  the  pupil's  prospect. 

It  would  seem  best  that  a  grouping  of  certain  studies,  togethei- 
with  the  reason  and  purpose  for  this  grouping,  be  made,  to  the  end  of 
aiding  the  pupil  in  his  task  of  election.  As  a  usual  thing  the  pupil 
who  is  worth  while  wishes  to  arrive  somewhere;  and  since  this 
grouping  into  suggestive  courses  would  be  of  distinct  assistance  to 
pupil,  teacher,  and  parent  alike,  there  can  be  no  valid  objection  to  it. 

The  advisory  system  of  supervision  for  high  school  pupils  has 
now  come  to  be  looked  upon  as  an  indispensable  factor  jn  modern 
secondary  school  administration.  The  details  of  the  system  are  not 
material  for  a  report  of  this  nature,  but  are  easily  accessible  in  many 
educational  publications  of  recent  date.  One  feature  in  this  system  is 
the  special  emphasis  placed  upon  the  selection  and  approval  of  the 
pupil's  subject  of  study  by  the  teacher  adviser.  The  adoption  of  this 
system  in  its  entirety  is  strongly  recommended. 


22 

The  opportunity  should  be  given  every  boy  and  girl  to  develop 
within  themselves  their  maximum  efficiency.  We  should  endeavor  to 
make  of  them  the  best  citizenship  possible.  It  may  be  that  this  or  that 
individual  child  is  not  mentally  or  physically  adapted  to  a  certain  line 
of  work,  but  there  will  surely  be  enough  of  other  work  in  which  he 
may  exercise_his  bent,  and  by  means  of  which  he  may  bring  to  the 
surface  all  his  latent  possibilities.  This  must  surely  be  our  educational 
creed  if  the  "greatest  good  to  every  child"  is  realized. 

(Signed)  W.  S.  DEFFENBAUGH, 

CHARLES  S.  MEEK, 
GEORGE  A.  EATON. 


Supplementary  by  Mr.  Eaton. 

Up  to  the  point  of  requiring  a  passable  proficiency  in  certain 
studies  that  are  deemed  basic,  the  members  of  the  Commission  have 
been  in  perfect  accord.  For  my  own  part  I  wish  to  thank  my  col- 
leagues for  the  generous  consideration  they  have  shown  me  personally 
and  for  the  splendid  spirit  of  co-operation  and  genuine  altruism  they 
have  evinced  in  discussions  of  the  local  situation,  and,  in  fact,  through- 
out the  entire  work  of  investigation.  I  deeply  appreciate  not  only  the 
pleasure  but  the  honor  that  has  fallen  to  my  lot  through  being  asso- 
ciated with  these  gentlemen  in  this  survey. 

While  the  matter  of  selection  and  election  of  studies  to  accom- 
modate individual  needs  should  be  a  fundamental  policy  of  high  school 
administration,  there  should  be  a  residum,  so  to  speak,  in  the  nature  of 
basic  studies  to  act  as  ballast  or  foundation  work  for  the  educational 
structure.  In  other  words,  the  diploma  of  graduation  from  an  accred- 
ited high  school  should  mean  that  the  graduate  has  a  good  training 
in  the  use  and  the  interpretation  of  the  English  language;  he  need  not 
be  a  mathematician,  but  he  should  have  some  knowledge  of  algebra 
and  geometry;  he  need  not  be  an  expert  in  any  branch  of  natural 
science,  but  he  should  at  least  have  delved  into  the  soil  of  this  rich 
field  sufficiently  to  acquire  an  elementary  knowledge  of  some  of  these 
sciences;  for  broadening  his  outlook  on  life  he  should  have  taken  at 
least  one  year  in  history,  preferably  U.  S.  History.  It  would  be  very 
desirable,  although  not  necessary,  that  he  complete  two  years'  work 
in  a  modern  language — French,  German  or  Spanish. 

In  your  high  school  the  only  requirement  as  a  study  for  gradu- 
ation is  three  years'  work  or  three  units  of  English;  the  other  twelve 
credits  may  be  chosen  from  any  of  the  other  subjects  taught  in  high 
school.  It  would  be  possible  to  obtain  these  credits  from  studies,  or 
rather  from  subjects  that  required  no  study,  at  least  no  preparation 
study.  The  result  is  bound  to  be  a  cheapening  of  the  high  school 
diploma  ,which  should  stand  for  something  substantial  in  an  intellec- 
tual way.  The  present  elective  plan  has  been  in  operation  but  two 
years  and  already  the  tendency  to  withdraw  from  the  more  intellectual 
work  is  shown  in  the  list  of  credit  units  of  the  graduating  class.  It 
would  only  be  natural  to  suppose  that  this  tendency,  unless  corrected, 
will  grow  stronger  as  years  go  on. 

Now  the  subjects  of  instruction  offered  in  high  school  may  readii> 
be  classified  in  a  grouping  scheme  and  the  groups  may  be  defined  as 
follows:  Scientific,  English  or  Literary,  Classical,  Normal  Prepara- 
tory, Domestic  Science,  Mechanic  Arts  and  Commercial.  These  names 
are  suggestive  merely,  but  indicate  in  a  general  way  the  scope  of  train- 
ing under  their  respective  heads. 


23 

In  all  the  above  groups  except  the  commercial,  which  represents  a 
specialized  training  in  certain  lines  and  calls  for  its  special  require- 
ments, the  subjects  of  English,  algebra,  plane  geometery,  history  and 
science  should  be  required  as  a  basis  for  graduation.  The  first  four 
groups  should  also  include  the  completion  of  at  least  two  years  work 
in  a  language. 

This  general  requirement  will  constitute  about  fifty  per  cent  of 
the  credit  necessary  for  graduation.  The  remaining  credits  would  then 
be  made  up  from  those  subjects  which  are  distinctive  of  the  course,  or 
they  may  be  made  up  from  any  other  subjects  in  the  high  school 
curriculum,  in  which  case  the  grouping  might  be  called  "Elective." 

This,  in  a  general  way,  is  the  plan  in  vogue  in  most  of  the  strong 
high  schools  of  the  country.  It  represents  no  extreme  view.  There  is 
nothing  mandatory  in  such  a  scheme;  it  simply  points  the  way,  advises 
and  suggests. 

I  have  firm  convictions  on  the  subject  of  the  elective  system  of 
studies  for  high  school  students.  The  tendency  in  such  a  system,  with 
little  or  no  modification,  is  bound  to  be  in  the  direction  of  weak 
scholarship.  This  tendency  may  be  checked  by  a  rigid  advisory  super- 
vision, to  which  all  will  subscribe,  but  it  will  not  be  eliminated.  Thert 
should  be  some  differentiation  in  the  recognition  given  to  a  high  school 
course  which  has  embraced  a  training  in  those  studies  commonly  ac- 
cepted as  basic  in  the  development  of  the  several  mental  faculties,  and 
one  which  discards  these  studies  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  substitutes 
therefor  a  purely  manual  or  mechanical  training. 

(Signed)  GEO.  A.  EATON. 


A  PLAN  FOR  MUNICIPAL  AND  EDUCATIONAL  UNITY  OF 

ADMINISTRATION. 
Prepared  by  W.  G.  Roylance  and  Edward  J.  Ward. 

Ogden  is  a  community  of  thirty  thousand  members.  By  reason 
of  its  location  at  the  mouth  of  Weber  Canyon,  one  of  the  easiest 
avenues  of  ingress  to  the  Great  Basin,  and  at  the  junction  of  three 
trans-continental  railroads,  it  has  been  from  the  beginning  an  im- 
portant commercial  center.  As  a  result  of  this,  its  population  has  been 
and  is  of  a  mixed  and  diversified  character,  making  the  problem  of  its 
unified  advance  difficult,  but  giving  promise  of  a  richly  varied  and 
interesting  common  life  as  the  city  finds  itself. 

Diversity  Increasing. 

The  city  is  at  the  heart  of  a  bountiful  agricultural  district,  well 
watered  by  the  confluence  of  the  Weber  and  the  Ogden,  two  01  me 
largest  rivers  in  Utah.  Until  recently,  the  industrial  development  has 
been  comparatively  slow  because  of  the  absorption  of  the  community 
in  commercial  activities.  But  within  the  last  few  years  the  production 
of  raw  materials  in  the  country  about  Ogden  has  increased  so  rapidly 
as  to  justify  and  necessitate  the  establishment  here  of  manufactories 
on  a  large  scale.  The  City  is  rapidly  changing  from  being  merely  a 
market  place  for  the  exchange  of  commodities  produced  elsewhere  to 
one  whose  possibilities  of  development  are  based  upon  its  own  pro- 
ductive industry.  Already  there  are  in  Ogden  or  in  its  immediate 
vicinity  twenty-five  canneries,  great  railroad  shops,  and  plants  for  the 
manufacture  of  sugar,  confectionery,  clothing,  structural  iron,  brick 
and  tile,  and  cement;  and  two  new  manufacturing  plants  are  in  process 


24 

of  erection.  In  addition  to  the  divergence  of  employment  of  the 
citizens  engaged  in  professional,  commercial,  and  agricultural  pursuits, 
over  seven  thousand  members  of  the  community  are  at  work  in  most 
widely  various  forms  of  industry. 

A  Threat?    Yes — And  a  Promise. 

By  reason  of  its  industrial  development,  the  people  of  Ogden  are 
going  farther  apart  in  specialism  of  occupation,  in  the  earning  of 
livelihoods,  and  this,  taken  with  the  separations  that  are  due  to  differ- 
ence of  race  origin  and  diversity  of  opinion  or  belief,  augments  in- 
creasingly the  threat  of  social  disintegration,  the  falling  apart,  which, 
unless  counteracted  by  an  equally  strong  unification,  spells  civic,  moral 
and  finally  economic  deterioration  for  any  community. 

If,  however,  this  fundamental  unification  is  secured  and  developed, 
the  very  diversities  of  interest,  which  otherwise  threaten  dissolution, 
will  become  the  resource  of  a  successful,  vigorous  and  satisfying  civic 
life. 

City's  Consciousness  of  Need. 

That  the  consciousness  of  the  need  of  fundamental  unification  and 
the  will  to  achieve  it,  exist  in  greater  or  less  clearness  and  strength, 
universally,  among  the  people  of  Ogden,  is  apparent  to  those  studying 
the  city  and  conversing  with  its  inhabitants.  In  civic  matters  there 
is  the  desire  for  understanding  and  the  removal  of  artificial  partitions, 
which  has  expressed  itself  in  the  adoption  of  the  commission  form  of 
government,  with  its  removal  of  party  distinctions  and  obliteration  of 
ward  boundaries  in  the  selection  of  these  agents  of  the  City's  co- 
operation. In  recreational  development  it  has  expressed  itself  in  the 
provision,  or  rather  the  beginning  of  provision,  of  means  for  the 
growth  of  public  cordiality  through  the  people's  enjoyment  together 
of  common  pleasures.  In  commercial  and  industrial  matters  it  is 
apparent  in  the  conversation  of  business  men  who  seek  to  call  forth 
the  spirit  of  civic  pride  and  "get-together'  for  the  prosperity  of  Ogden. 
This  out-reaching  consciousness  and  will  for  unity  which  is  the  basic 
hope  of  a  progressing  civilization,  is  present  in  every  American  com- 
munity, but  in  none  is  it  stronger,  more  variously  expressed  or  more 
apparent  than  here.  It  is  the  democratic  repetition  of  the  ancient  story 
of  creation,  the  spirit  of  unity,  of  order  and  organization  brooding 
over  Chaos,  and  willing  that  out  of  it  shall  come  Cosmos. 

Machinery  of  Organization  Necessary. 

There  is  abundant  evidence  of  dissatisfaction  with  the  present 
fundamental  apartness  of  the  people  of  Ogden,  and  sincere  regret  at 
the  misunderstandings,  pettinesses,  frictions,  antagonisms  and  preju- 
dices which  exist.  There  is  no  person  in  Ogden  who  is  not  somewhat 
ashamed  of  the  fact  that  there  is  no  adequate  public  provision  for  the 
young  people  of  the  City  "to  have  a  good  time  without  going  wrong," 
ashamed  of  the  fact  that  there  is  dissipation  of  the  energies  of  Ogden's 
youth  where  there  should  be  constructive  well-directed  and  wholesome 
recreation.  There  is  also  abundant  evidence  of  the  growth  of  genuine 
community  ambition,  a  sentiment  of  deep  desire  for  the  realization 
of  the  greater  strength  and  wealth  and  happiness  which  democracy 
and  neighborhood  ought  to  afford.  But  this  dissatisfaction  with 
disunity,  this  sentiment  of  community  ambition,  this  broadening  of 
human  feeling,  is  not  all  that  is  necessary  to  bring  ordered  unity  out 
of  the  city's  civic,  recreational  and  economic  disconnection.  There 
is  the  practical,  material  necessity  of  machinery  of  understanding, 
acquaintance  and  co-operation.  The  best  thought  of  the  past  century 


25 

has  been  devoted  to  the  invention  and  perfecting  of  machinery  by 
which  things  should  work  together  for  good,  by  which  physical  forces 
should  be  combined  for  the  production  of  wealth.  Today  it  is  recog- 
nized that  the  problem  of  community  adjustment  includes  the  neces- 
sity of  perfecting  machinery  by  which  people  may  work  together  and 
think  together,  and  enjoy  together  for  good;  by  which  social  forces 
and  individual  energies  may  be  combined,  not  to  produce  wealth 
merely,  but  to  produce  that  which  gives  wealth  all  its  value — human 
welfare.  The  perception  of  this  practical  necessity  of  a  means  of  our 
getting  together  as  members  of  the  community  in  an  organization 
that  shall  place  under  our  diversities  of  interest  and  activity,  a  real 
and  working  unity  of  basic  integration,  is  becoming  general  in  the 
thought  of  the  leaders  throughout  America  today.  President  Wilson 
recently  phrased  this  general  perception  in  these  words: 

"It  is  necessary  that  simple  means  be  found,  by  which,  by 
an  interchange  of  points  of  view  we  may  get  together,  for  the 
whole  process  of  modern  life,  the  whole  process  of  modern 
politics,  is  a  process  by  which  we  must  exclude  misunder- 
standings, bring  all  men  into  common  counsel  and  so  discover 
what  is  the  common  interest.  This  is  the  problem  of  modern 
life  which  is  so  specialized  that  it  is  almost  devitalized,  so 
disconnected  that  the  tides  of  life  will  not  flow." 

In  order  to  get  together  into  a  single  organization  of  the  whole 
citizenship,  it  is  first  of  all  necessary  that  the  City  be  equipped  with 
a  system  of  commonly  owned  and  conveniently  distributed  buildings 
and  grounds  capable  of  being  used  as  centers  of  orderly  assembly  for 
the  presentation  and  all-sided  discussion  of  public  questions,  capable 
of  being  used  also  as  neighborhood  club  houses  and  centers  of  well 
directed  and  wholesome  recreation.  There  is  necessary  also  the  em- 
ployment of  a  staff  of  community  servants,  men  and  women  hired  in 
each  district,  not  to  promote  any  individual  or  private  advantage, 
but  devoted  solely  to  serving  the  community  as  a  whole.  This  need 
of  practical  machinery  for  citizenship  organization  and  co-operation 
in  the  wholesome  use  of  leisure  is  universal;  but  nowhere  is  this  need 
greater  than  in  Ogden. 

Necessary    Machinery    Now    Here,    But   Unappreciated   and    Unused. 

In  its  system  of  public  school  buildings  and  yards,  Ogden  now 
has  a  distribution  of  neighborhood  houses  and  grounds,  belonging  to 
all  the  people  and  capable  of  being  used,  even  in  their  present  state 
of  inadequate  equipment,  as  district  centers  of  citizenship-organization, 
not  only  for  voting,  but  for  that  orderly,  all-sided  deliberation  upon 
public  questions  which  is  the  recognized  prerequisite  of  intelligent 
voting;  capable  of  being  used  and  indeed  inviting  use  as  neighborhood 
club  houses  and  centers  of  well  planned  and  directed  recreational 
activity.  In  its  public  school  system,  even  as  now  unused  most  of  the 
time  and  with  its  full  development  all  unrealized,  Ogden  has  what 
biologists  call  the  adumbration,  the  foreshadowing  of  the  adequate 
machinery  of  its  practical  self-organization.  It  is  no  question  of 
creating  a  new  system  of  community  equipment.  It  is  merely  a 
question  of  the  city's  economical  and  efficient  use  and  development  of 
its  existing  conveniently  distributed  machinery. 

A  few  years  ago,  if  one  had  asked  what  stands  in  the  way  of  the 
full  use  of  this  system  of  neighborhood  buildings  as  centers  of  organ- 
ized civic  expression  and  wholesome  recreation,  the  answer  might 
have  been  given  that  these  buildings  are  for  educational  use,  and 
citizenship  expression  and  recreational  activities  are  not  educational. 


26 

Today  that  answer  can  no  longer  be  given,  for  the  constructive  (to- 
gether-building) processes  of  civic  expression  and  organized  recreation 
on  the  part  of  adults  and  older  youth,  are  seen  to  be  as  truly  educa- 
tional as  the  instruction  (in-building)  of  children.  The  old  idea  of 
education  as  being  merely  a  juvenile  function  is  no  longer  in  the  way 
of  the  city's  making  full  civic,  social  and  recreational  use  of  its 
neighborhood  equipment. 

What,  then,  is  in  the  way? 

It  may  be  answered  that  the  trouble  lies  in  the  character  of  the 
public  servants  employed  in  each  of  these  district  buildings  and  the 
conception  that  exists  regarding  their  function.  They  are  teachers, 
and  the  service  that  adult  citizens  require  in  their  use  of  the  school 
buildings  is  not  that  of  teachers  over  them,  but  of  clerks  or  civic 
secretaries  under  them,  and  the  service  that  is  needed  for  the  recrea- 
tional use  of  the  common  school  houses  is  not  that  of  teachers  over 
the  older  youth  in  their  use  of  the  buildings,  but  rather  that  of  leaders 
and  companions  with  them  in  their  recreations.  Moreover,  it  may 
well  be  said,  that  for  the  systematic  organization  of  the  use  of  the 
schoolhouses  by  adults  and  older  youth  during  the  time  that  they 
are  unoccupied  by  the  children's  instructional  activities,  it  is  neces- 
sary that  a  civic  secretary  and  general  director  of  recreation  be 
appointed  as  associate  or  assistant  to  the  superintendent  of  schools. 
All  this  is  true,  but  this  increase  and  adjustment  of  the  personal  ser- 
vice that  is  necessary  for  the  systematic  organization  of  the  full  civic, 
social  and  recreational  use  of  this  common  property  may  be  expected 
to  be  quickly  made  when  once  the  great  obstacle  to  the  city's  use 
of  its  community  equipment  is  removed. 

What  is  that  obstacle? 

Before  considering  the  answer  to  that  fundamental  question  it 
may  be  well  to  see  how,  from  within  the  school  system  of  the  city, 
there  has  been  growing  a  movement  of  out-reaching  development 
tending  to  fit  the  schools  for  meeting  this  need. 

Striving  Within  School  System  to  Meet  Community  Need. 

While  there  has  been  growing  in  the  mind  of  the  city  the  con- 
sciousness of  its  need  of  such  unification  as  only  the  full  use  of  the 
public  school  system  is  capable  of  satisfying,  there  has  been  a  marked 
tendency  toward  community  adjustment  from  within  the  school  system 
itself,  and  the  internal  efficiency  of  the  system  has  been  strengthen- 
ing and  perfecting  so  as  to  make  it  increasingly  capable  of  meeting  the 
city's  need. 

When  the  conditions  of  the  school  system  five  years  ago  are 
considered,  and  the  comparatively  limited  resources  with  which  the 
present  administration  has  had  to  work,  the  progress  made  by  it 
must  be  a  cause  of  pride  to  every  observing  and  thoughtful  citizen  of 
Ogden.  The  improvement  in  the  method  of  appointment  and  advance- 
ment of  teachers  and  the  scheduling  of  salaries  has  brought  the  sys- 
tem of  Ogden  from  its  position  near  the  worst  among  American  cities 
to  a  place  which  compares  favorably  with  any  in  the  systematic  handl- 
ing of  this  essential  matter.  The  encouragement  of  professional 
self-improvement  on  the  part  of  teachers  through  university-extension 
study  has  been  most  commendable.  As  compared  with  the  average 
school  system  there  has  been  brought  about  by  the  present  adminis- 
tration throughout  Ogden's  teaching  staff  an  excellent  spirit  of  co- 
operation and  esprit  de  corps.  A  careful  investigation  has  failed  to 
reveal  any  more  dissention  and  disloyalty  than  unfortunately  exists 
in  practically  all  school  systems,  and  much  less  than  might  be  ex- 


27 

pected,  considering  the  low  scale  of  salaries  which  the  poverty  of  the 
system  requires  here.  The  perception  of  the  importance  of  the  per- 
sonality and  professional  equipment  of  the  teaching  force,  and  the 
willingness  to  sacrifice  everything  else  for  it,  if  necessary,  shows 
true  pedagogical  understanding  in  the  present  administration.  There 
has  been,  not  only  indirectly,  through  the  better  organization  of  the 
teaching  staff,  but  directly  in  better  grouping  for  instruction  and  other- 
wise, a  marked  improvement  in  the  service  of  the  schools  to  the 
children.  The  course  of  study,  while  still  imperfect,  as  is  the  case  in 
every  city,  has  been  systematically  organized,  with  such  enrichments 
as  are  approved  by  modern  educational  thought.  The  school  plants, 
though  still  far  from  adequate  in  extent  and  equipment  of  ground, 
and  though  far  from  the  practical  ideal  in  design  and  equipment  of 
buildings,  have  yet  shown  a  steady  improvement.  But  in  nothing  has 
there  been  greater  significance  than  in  the  tendency  shown  to  adjust 
the  character  and  activities  of  the  school  system  to  the  larger  task 
of  community  integration.  The  inauguration  of  industrial  training, 
the  extension  of  school  and  home  gardening,  the  establishment  of  an 
evening  class  in  domestic  science  for  young  women,  not  otherwise 
enrolled  in  the  schools,  the  practical  demonstration  given  of  the 
economy  and  feasibility  of  the  school  houses  being  used  as  polling 
places,  the  method  followed  in  securing  decorations  and  much  needed 
special  equipment  by  the  fostering  of  community  contribution  when 
public  funds  were  not  available,  and  the  beginning  of  the  practice 
of  first  hand  conference  with  the  citizens  in  the  various  districts  upon 
important  questions  of  policy — all  these  are  signs  of  out-reaching 
within  the  school  system  to  meet  the  larger  need.  And  the  much 
discussed  "half  day"  plan,  considered  both  as  an  experiment  partly 
worked  out  in  practice,  and  a  proposed  program  of  future  policy,  is 
to  be  intelligently  comprehended  only  wThen  it  is  seen  as  an  expression 
of  this  earnest  striving  from  within  the  system  to  bring  about  the 
adjustment  of  the  schools  to  actual  community  needs. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  "half  day"  or  part-time  plan,  it  appears 
that  most  of  the  emphasis  has  been  placed  upon  the  pupil's  being  out 
of  school  part  of  the  time.  At  least  equal  emphasis  should  be  placed 
upon  the  possibility  under  this  plan,  of  bringing  into  the  schools  per- 
sons who  otherwise  would  get  no  instructional  benefit  from  them. 
The  great  underlying  purpose  of  the  proposal  is  educational  expansion 
through  co-operation  of  the  school  with  the  industrial  and  the  home 
life  of  the  community.  If  it  can  be  carried  out  in  an  atmosphere  of 
constructive  criticism  and  appreciation  of  its  splendid  aim,  on  the 
part  of  the  people  of  Ogden,  it  will  tend  to  vitalize  the  work  of  the 
schools  by  keeping  it  in  touch  with  reality,  and  at  the  same  time  will 
carry  into  the  domestic  circle,  and  the  industrial  activities  of  the 
community  the  trained  intelligence  and  the  high  ideals  of  the 
schools.  The  thought  underlying  the  part-time  plan  is  not  new.  For 
a  quarter  of  a  century  and  more  the  educational  thinking  of  the  nation 
has  striven  toward  the  closer  unity  and  the  ultimate  identity  of 
school  activities  with  all  the  community's  life  functioning.  Part-time 
in  school,  and  part  time  out — the  whole  conceived  as  education — is  in 
successful  operation  in  Munich  and  many  other  places  in  Europe,  and 
in  Cincinnati,  Fitchburg,  and  many  other  cities  and  towns  on  this 
continent.  The  plan  proposed  in  Ogden  which  aims  to  combine  the 
best  features  of  the  plans  in  operation  elsewhere,  so  far  as  possible 
with  the  resources  that  have  been  available  in  the  Ogden  schools, 
has  received  the  approval  of  educators  of  national  repute  such  as  P. 
P.  Claxton,  M.  V.  O'Shea,  and  John  Francis,  who,  by  reason  of  their 
familiarity  with  the  problem  have  comprehended  the  larger  signifi- 


28 

cance  of  the  Ogden  half-day  plan.  So  important  a  matter  as  this 
should  not  be  judged  merely  with  regard  to  the  practicability  of  tran- 
sitional and  experimental  arrangements  incidental  to  its  trying  out. 
It  is  unreasonable  to  expect  that  so  important  a  readjustment  could 
be  planned  so  completely  de  novo  that  no  changes  would  have  to  be 
made  as  the  result  of  experience.  It  should  be  judged  upon  its  merits, 
never  forgetting  that  it  is  aimed,  as  education  must  be  aimed,  to  meet 
not  past  conditions  nor  theoretical  situations,  but  present  conditions 
and  immediate  necessities,  and  remembering  the  unfortunate  fact  that 
like  other  recent  developments  in  the  schools  of  Ogden  this  begin- 
ning has  been  made  under  conditions  which  have  produced  financial 
stringency  for  the  whole  system. 

This  process,  variously  expressed,  of  expansion  from  within  the 
school  system  to  meet  the  city's  need  as  at  present  divorced  from  the 
central  administration,  seems  to  have  gone  about  as  far  as  its  re- 
sources will  permit. 

Here,  then,  is  the  situation.  The  City  needs  and  is  becoming 
conscious  that  it  must  have  access  to  the  machinery  of  its  com- 
prehensive self-organization,  civic,  recreational,  economic,  which  only 
the  full  use  of  its  public  school  system  can  furnish.  And  here  is 
this  equipment  of  community  property,  served  by  a  publicly  em- 
ployed staff  of  men  and  women,  in  whose  conduct  and  administration 
there  is  an  evident  striving  under  difficulties  to  be  of  use  as  the  city's 
machinery  of  adequate  self-organization. 

What  is  the  Obstacle?     Disunity. 

It  requires  no  profound  study,  but  simply  a  little  clear  eyed  look- 
ing at  the  matter,  and  the  practical  application  to  it  of  a  modicum  of 
common  sense,  to  see  that  the  root  of  the  difficulty  lies  in  the  dis- 
unity of  administration,  the  fact  that  the  city  has  two  commissions  for 
the  management  of  its  public  business  which  can  be  efficiently  man- 
aged and  developed  only  as  unity  of  administration  is  secured. 

Unify. 

Because  of  the  financial  saving  and  the  business  efficiency  that 
would  result  from  unification  of  administration;  because  the  public 
school  system  cannot  succeed  even  in  its  prime  function  of  effectively 
training  children  for  citizenship  and  promoting  their  morality  unless 
the  adults  and  older  youth  of  the  community  make  use  of  the  school 
houses  as  centers  of  organized  civic  expression  and  wholesome  recre- 
ation: And  because  this  full  use  of  the  public  school  system  as  the 
machinery  of  the  City's  comprehensive  self -organization  depends  ab- 
solutely upon  the  unification  of  its  municipal  and  public  school  admin- 
istration. Therefore,  we  find,  after  careful  study  of  all  the  elements  of 
the  situation  and  after  consulting  officials  and  other  responsible  and 
well  informed  citizens,  that  the  key  to  the  solution  of  Ogden's  problem, 
civic,  moral  and  economic,  is  the  consolidation  and  identification  of  its 
municipal  commission  and  its  board  of  education. 

Save  Money. 

At  present,  Ogden  has  two  commissions  for  the  administration  of 
its  municipal  affairs;  one,  whose  headquarters  is  in  the  City  Hall,  an- 
other with  its  headquarters  in  the  Colonel  Hudson  building.  The 
duplication  of  office  equipment  and  help  is  but  the  obvious  outcrop- 
ping of  a  duplication  of  systems  of  equipment  and  service  that  would 
be  financially  extravagant  and  wasteful  even  if  the  taxpayers  had 
money  to  throw  away.  For  instance,  the  taxpayers  are  paying 


29 

rental  upon  polling  places  and  hiring  special  clerical  service  for  their 
voting  when,  conveniently  distributed  throughout  the  City  arc  build- 
ings which  the  taxpayers  now  own,  capable  of  being  used  for  voting, 
and  in  each  of  these  buildings  is  a  publicly  employed  person  well-fitted 
to  furnish  the  clerical  service.  Each  election  costs  the  taxpayers 
directly,  considerably  more  than  a  thousand  dollars.  The  last  election 
cost  $1,378.32.  Most  of  this  expense  would  be  obviated  by  the  use 
of  the  school  system  as  the  election  machinery.  But  this  is  not  the  only 
saving  that  would  be  effected  in  connection  with  elections  through 
the  civic  use  of  the  school  buildings.  A  large  part  of  the  campaign 
expenses,  those  that  go  for  hall  rent  and  publicity,  all  of  which  comes 
directly  or  indirectly  out  of  the  taxpayers'  pockets  would  be  saved, 
by  the  use  of  the  school  houses  as  common  places  of  citizens'  assembly 
to  hear  the  claims  of  the  various  candidates  and  the  arguments  for 
voting  this  way  or  that.  And  not  only  this  way  but  in  many  others, 
is  the  supporting  of  two  separate  and  duplicating  systems  of  public 
equipment  financially  extravagant,  and  apparently  the  community  has 
already  entered  upon  a  program  of  further  wasteful  duplication  of 
expensive  equipment. 

In  Liberty  Park,  there  is  an  out-door  recreation  outfit  which  cost 
the  citizens  some  twenty-eight  hundred  dollars.  It  is  not  a  complete 
playground  equipment  because  there  is  not  a  public  building  there 
located  for  the  children  and  older  people  to  use  during  the  evenings 
and  during  cold  or  otherwise  inclement  weather.  Without  such  a 
building  as  part  of  the  recreation  equipment  ,this  outfit  is  bound  to 
stand  idle  most  of  the  time.  Meanwhile,  the  children  of  the  citizens, 
the  same  taxpayers  whose  money  paid  for  that  unused  equipment,  are 
and  will  continue  to  be  assembling  in  neighborhood  buildings  and 
upon  neighborhood  grounds;  and  there,  where  the  children  actually  are, 
there  is  practically  no  equipment  indoor  or  out  for  wholesome  re- 
creation. And  now  there  is  in  the  hands  of  the  municipal  commission 
that  meets  in  the  city  hall,  a  petition  signed  by  some  nine  hundred  of 
the  citizens  residing  in  one  section  of  the  city,  for  the  establishment  of 
a  community  plant  that  will  afford  recreation  opportunities.  A  com- 
munity plant,  to  be  complete  even  for  recreation  alone,  means  a  build- 
ing as  well  as  a  piece  of  ground.  Meanwhile,  in  that  very  district,  as 
in  every  section  of  Ogden,  there  is  a  community  building  and  ground 
that  now  belongs  to  the  citizens,  which  is  idle  during  practically  all 
the  time  that  a  special  recreation  center  would  be  in  use,  and  which 
must  have  practically  all  the  equipment  that  would  be  installed  in  a 
recreation  center,  if  it  is  to  do  its  prime  work  well.  If  this  petition 
is  granted  for  this  district  it  is  likely  to  be  followed  by  similar  peti- 
tions from  other  districts.  This  points  to  the  purchase  of  land  for 
small  parks  and  to  the  erection  of  buildings  to  be  used  as  recreation 
centers  in  every  district  of  the  city.  Meanwhile  the  existing  public 
buildings  will  stand  idle  during  practically  every  hour  of  the  time 
that  such  a  duplicate  system  of  neighborhood  equipment  as  is  pro- 
jected, would  be  in  use.  The  result  will  be  two  poorly  supported  and 
half  used  systems  of  community  equipment,  costing  enormously  and 
the  financial  necessities  of  each  preventing  the  other  from  getting  the 
money  it  needs  for  efficient  service. 

The  separate  small  park  and  recreation  center  duplication  of  the 
public  school  system  has  been  attempted  in  Chicago.  Beginning  a 
score  of  years  ago  when  the  idea  of  divorce  of  education  from  practi- 
cal affairs  was  at  its  most  absurd  extreme,  the  taxpayers  of  Chicago 
have  poured  twenty  million  dollars  into  this  extravagance,  and  secured 
for  it  the  equipment  of  less  than  one-tenth  of  Chicago's  neighborhoods, 
at  the  expense  of  robbing  the  whole  school  system  of  financial  sup- 
port, and  deprived  nine-tenths  of  Chicago's  children  of  the  recreational 


30 

equipment  that  twenty  million  dollars  would  have  purchased  had  it 
been  devoted  to  securing  equipment  to  be  installed  in  the  existing 
school  buildings  and  upon  the  existing  school  grounds,  instead  of  being 
spent  for  new  grounds  and  new  buildings.  The  result  today  is  sum- 
med up  by  John  R.  Richards,  Superintendent  of  the  South  Park  Sys- 
tem and  agreed  to  by  his  predecessor  E.  B.  DeGroot,  and  the  greatest 
recreation  center  and  school  architect  in  America,  Dwight  H.  Per- 
kins, as  an  absurd  and  increasingly  expensive  community  extravagance; 
increasingly  expensive  because  it  is  now  seen  that,  if  the  recreation 
center  is  to  be  fully  developed,  it  must  have  practically  the  full  equip- 
ment of  a  modern  school  plant,  just  as  it  is  coming  to  be  seen  that  the 
modern  school  plant  is  not  properly  designed  and  completely  outfitted 
unless  it  has  all  the  equipment  of  a  well-appointed  recreation  center. 

Putting  the  question  on  its  lowest  grounds;  can  the  taxpayers  af- 
ford this  progressively  increasing  extravagance  of  duplication? 

The  City  Cannot  Afford  This  Extravagance. 

Whether  the  recognition  that  civic  expression  is  education  is 
universal  or  not;  that  is,  whether  it  is  recognized  that  the  provision  of 
separate  places  for  voting,  instead  of  using  the  school  houses  for 
this  purpose,  is  actual  duplication  of  educational  equipment;  every 
intelligent  person  recognizes  that  organized  recreation  is  an  educa- 
tional function  and  that  the  building  of  separate  recreation  centers 
when  the  schoolhouses  are  idle,  is  distinctly  a  duplication  of  educa- 
tional equipment. 

Now,  the  question  is — judging  from  Ogden's  present  expenditure 
for  educational  purposes,  can  it  afford  the  extravagance  of  duplica- 
tion? 

The  total  cost  of  running  the  schools  of  Ogden  for  the  year  1912- 
1913  was  $276,697.52.  This  amount  was  derived  from  the  following 
sources: 

Ogden's  apportionment  of  state  school  fund $  59,484.32 

Ogden's  apportionment  of  county  school  fund 23,393.42 

From  local  taxation,  interest  on  investments,  etc 193,819.78 


Total  expenditures $276,697.52 

As  Ogden  pays  into  the  state  and  county  funds  more  than  it  draws 
from  them,  these  figures  do  not  represent  the  total  expenditure  of  the 
city  for  the  support  of  public  education,  not  to  mention  the  large  ex- 
penditure for  denominational  and  other  private  education  which,  of 
course,  comes  out  of  the  community's  resources  precisely  as  does  the 
public  tax.  On  its  assessed  valuation  of  $14,724,530,  Ogden  paid  a 
county  school  tax  of  7.637  mills,  amounting  to  $103,616.52,  and  a  state 
school  tax  of  3.5  mills,  amounting  to  $51,536.85.  That  is,  the  city 
pays  into  these  two  funds  a  total  of  $155,153.37,  and  recieved  from 
them  $82,877.74.  Thus  the  citizens  of  Ogden  contribute  to  the  support 
of  the  schools  of  the  state  and  the  county  $72,275.53.  In  addition  to  this 
Ogden's  portion  of  the  state  expenditures  for  the  support  of  higher 
education  is  $46,725.75.  Therefore,  the  total  expenditures  of  Ogden 
taxpayers  for  the  support  of  public  education  are: 

For  city  schools $276,697.52 

For  county  schools 72,295.53 

For  state  schools 46,725.75 


Total $395,718.80 

The  total  per  capita  expenditure  of  Ogden  for  public  education  is 
$13.19  on  the  basis  of  thirty  thousand  population.  Its  per  capita  for 
the  support  of  its  own  schools,  for  the  year  1912-13  was  $9.22. 


31 

As  there  are  no  accurate  figures  available  from  which  we  can  de- 
termine the  earnings  of  the  community,  it  will  be  difficult  even  to 
estimate  how  much  of  a  draft  upon  its  resources,  these  expenditures 
constitute.  The  total  percentage  of  the  assessed  valuation  of  its 
property  for  all  school  purposes  is  2.266;  of  its  total  wealth  .755. 
We  have  figures  which  give  some  indication  of  the  average  earnings; 
as, —  There  are  7,000  persons  employed  in  the  trades,  at  an  average 
wage  of  about  $3.00.  These  earn  in  the  aggregate  probably  about 
$4,000,000  annually.  These,  however,  must  represent  more  than  half 
the  earners  of  the  city.  And  if  we  suppose  that  there  are  four 
thousand  more,  in  business  and  the  professions,  with  an  average  in- 
come of  $1,000,  it  will  give  another  $4,000.000.  There  are  nearly  $10,- 
000,000  of  bank  deposits,  which  perhaps  pay  a  total  income  of  $500,- 
000.  The  total  is  $8,500.00  This  divided  by  thirty  thousand  gives  an 
average  income  of  $283  per  capita.  Of  course,  so  rough  an  estimate 
is  of  no  value,  except  merely  as  an  indication,  but  there  are  many 
other  things  which  point  to  the  conclusion  that  earnings  and  incomes 
in  Ogden  average  high.  Counting  five  to  the  family,  we  should  have 
an  income  per  family  of  $1,415.00  annually. 

The  statement  that  Ogden  cannot  afford  the  duplication  of  its 
public  equipment  for  community  purposes  is  not  based  upon  the 
supposition  that  the  city  is  poor.  That  is  not  the  case.  On  the 
contrary,  it  is  comparatively  rich.  Nor  is  it  based  upon  the  assump- 
tion that  Ogden  is  paying  a  high  percentage  of  its  income  for  public 
education,  in  comparison  with  other  cities.  That  assumption  does 
not  seem  to  be  well  founded.  Some  of  the  smaller  cities  of  Utah  pay 
a  much  higher  rate.  Qgden's  percentage  of  income  expended  for  all 
public  purposes  is  4.6.  One  Utah  town  expended,  last  year,  for  public 
educational  purposes  21  per  cent  of  its  entire  income.  Three  other 
towns  averaged  15  per  cent.  No  data  are  obtainable  to  show 
how  Ogden  compares  with  other  cities  of  like  size  and  industrial 
character  in  this  respect.  The  expenditures  per  capita,  however,  are 
available.  Comparison  with  other  cities  shows  that  Ogden  has  a 
very  high  expenditure  per  capita  of  population,  but  its  expenditure 
per  capita  of  the  children  enrolled  in  the  public  schools  is  lower  than 
any  other  cities  comparable  in  size,  as  shown  in  table  on  page  9. 
The  following  table  gives  the  cost  per  capita  of  population  for  Ogden 
and  eight  other  cities,  which  however  have  a  much  larger  popula- 
tion: 

Chicago  per  capita  population $4.54 

St.  Louis 4.20 

San  Francisco 4.26 

New  Orleans 2.89 

Los  Angeles    4.76 

Newark 6.02 

Milwaukee 3.66 

Salt  Lake  City* 7.39 

Ogden* 6.28 

*For   1912-1913,   excluding  payment   of  matured   bonds. 


<*  32 

Of  its  total  revenues  for  all  purposes,  Ogden  expends  36%  for 
the  support  of  its  schools.  The  following  gives  the  comparison  with 
nine  other  cities: 

Chicago   26 

St.  Louis 23 

San  Francisco 23 

Milwaukee    25 

Newark    32 

New  Orleans 23 

Los  Angeles    35 

1     Salt    Lake    City 

Ogden    36 

The  expenditures  of  Ogden  for  the  support  of  public  education 
were  $68,186.23  greater  in  1912-13  than  in  1911-12.  $35,000.00  of  this 
increase  was  in  payment  of  matured  bonds,  leaving  a  normal  increase 
of  $33,186.23,  or  5.6  per  cent.  This  rate  of  increase,  which  no  doubt 
is  safely  within  the  ability  of  the  taxpayers  is,  however,  far  from 
sufficient  to  enable  the  schools  to  maintain  their  present  rate  of 
progress.  It  is  wholly  inadequate  to  enable  the  schools  to  keep 
pace  with  the  rapid  growth  of  the  community.  The  local  tax  levy 
is  8.363  mills,  nearly  the  limit  that  can  be  reached  without  a  vote 
of  the  taxpayers,  a  little  more  than  in  Weber  County,  but  much  less 
than  in  many  Utah  districts.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  the  improve- 
ments needed  in  the  Ogden  schools,  simply  to  provide  the  necessities 
for  their  narrow  use  as  merely  the  centers  of  children's  instruction, 
cannot  be  made  from  the  proceeds  of  tax  levies  alone.  Bonding  is 
necessary.  An  analysis  of  the  financial  condition  and  a  comparison 
with  other  Utah  cities  and  districts  will  show  that  relatively  and 
absolutely  the  city  may  safely  bond  much  more  heavily  for  school 
purposes.  At  present  Ogden  is  carrying  a  municipal  bonded  indebted- 
ness of  over  $1,000,000,  and  the  school  bonds  of  only  $195,000,  or 
more  than  five  times  as  much  for  general  municipal  as  for  school 
purposes.  Generally  throughout  the  state,  the  proportion  for  schools 
is  larger  than  this;  in  the  smaller  towns,  much  larger.  Relative  to 
population  and  to  assessed  valuation,  it  is  much  greater  in  Salt  Lake 
City  and  Murray,  though  less  in  Logan  and  in  Provo,  as  shown  by 
the  following  table: 


Cities 

Population 

Assessed 
Valuation 

School 
Bonds 

Municipal 
Bonds 

Salt  Lake   .  .  .  . 

..    ..     105000 

$1  485  000 

$4  398  000 

Ogden    

30,000 

$14924,531 

195000 

1.005,000 

Provo 

10000 

182  000 

Logan 

10  000 

162000 

Murray    

5  000 

22000 

But  the  true  test  of  ability  to  bond  is  the  present  earning  power, 
the  rate  of  its  increase,  and  the  assurance  that  there  will  continue  to 
be  a  sufficient  increase  in  the  earning  power  of  the  community.  We 
must  bequeath  to  the  future,  not  only  the  debt,  but  the  ability  to  pay  it. 

From  the  above  it  appears  that  Ogden  is  comparatively  well  able 
to  make  a  considerable  bond  issue  for  the  immediate  improvement 
of  its  school  plant  and  equipment.  We  suggest  the  advisability  of 
caring  for  all  permanent  improvements  for  some  time  to  come  by 


33 

bonding,  leaving  all  that  can  be  derived  from  annual  taxation  for  the— 
maintenance  of  the  schools. 

Of  the  permanent  improvements  needed,  some  of  which  are  men- 
tioned in  other  parts  of  this  report,  the  following  should  be  supplied 
as  soon  as  bonds  can  be  voted: 

The  placing  of  all  school  buildings  in  a  thoroughly  sanitary 
condition. 

The  installing  of  adequate,  modern  heating  and  ventilation  in  all 
buildings. 

Indoor  and  outdoor  gymnasium  equipment  sufficient  to  meet  the 
needs  of  all  the  school  children. 

The  extension  of  the  school  grounds  to  provide  for  school  gardens 
as  well  as  adequately  to  provide  for  space  for  play. 

The  removal  or  renovation  for  use  of  the  two  old  buildings  in 
the  rear  of  the  Central  Junior  High  School  and  the  Madison  School 
respectively. 

Such  addition  to  present  buildings  or  construction  of  new  build- 
ings as  will  relieve  the  congestion  that  now  exists  in  some  of  the 
schools,  and  will  make  unnecessary  the  use  of  rooms  below  the 
ground  level  for  study  or  recitation. 

Increased  equipment  for  industrial  training  in  the  High  Schools 
and  adequate  industrial  training  equipment  for  all  schools,  elementary 
as  well  as  high. 

Ogden  Has  Not  One  Cent  to  Waste  on  Duplication. 

Ogden's  bond  limit  for  school  purposes  is  $441,735.00.  The  out- 
standing bonded  indebtedness  for  schools  is  $195,000.  This  leaves  in 
round  numbers,  $250,000,  that  the  taxpayers  may  yet  elect  to  issue. 
If  this  whole  amount  were  issued,  it  would  not  be  sufficently  adequate 
to  meet  Ogden's  need  for  ample  school  grounds,  buildings  and  equip- 
ment. With  less  than  the  amount  of  money  that  this  bond  issue  will 
yield,  the  schools  will  not  only  be  physically  hampered,  but  their 
deterioration  cannot  be  prevented. 

The  public  school  system  of  Ogden  needs  for  its  efficiency,  con- 
sidered merely  as  its  public  instrument  of  instruction  of  children, 
MORE  money  than  can  be  secured  from  annual  taxation  and  from 
bonds.  Obviously  Ogden  cannot  afford  to  waste  one  penny  in  the 
purchase  of  land  and  the  construction  of  buildings  for  a  duplicate 
system  of  community  equipment.  But,  this  is  what  it  does  when 
money  is  spent  for  the  rental  of  places  for  voting  while  it  has  and 
might  be  using  its  public  school  houses  for  this  purpose;  and  this 
is  what  it  has  begun  to  do  in  its  installation  of  recreational  equip- 
ment in  Liberty  Park  and  this  is  what  is  likely  to  be  done  on  an 
extensive  scale  if  the  petition  in  the  hands  of  the  Mayor  is  granted 
and  the  policy  of  small  parks  and  recreation  centers  separate  from 
the  public  school  buildings  and  grounds  is  followed  out.  This  is  what 
is  being  done  and  is  likely  to  continue  to  be  done  if  the  city  com- 
mission and  the  school  board  are  not  consolidated. 

Community  Plants  are  Best  and  Cheapest  School  Plants. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  ground  that  is  used  as  a  school  yard  during 
the  early  part  of  the  school  days  can  be  used  as  a  small  park  and 
recreation  field  by  all  of  the  people  in  the  community  and  that  the 
best  school  ground  is  the  best  park  and  recreation  field,  and  vice 
versa;  so  that  the  purchase  of  separate  plots  of  ground  for  recreation 
purposes  is  a  clear  duplication.  To  one  who  is  not  familiar  with  the 
recent  and  best  developments  in  school  and  recreation  center  archi- 


34 

lecture,  it  may  not  be  so  obvious  that  the  building  of  community 
recreation  centers,  separate  from  the  schools  is  a  clear  duplication. 
For  a  number  of  years  Dwight  H.  Perkins  was  school  architect  of 
Chicago.  He  then  became  the  architect  of  recreation  centers  in  the 
Lincoln  Park  system.  For  several  years  he  worked  on  the  two  sorts 
of  buildings.  About  a  year  ago,  to  meet  the  requirements  of  a  com- 
munity that  needed  a  new  school  house  and  also  wanted  a  recreation 
center,  but  could  not  afford  two  separate  plants,  he  worked  out  a 
school  plan  that  combines  the  features  of  the  two  sorts  of  buildings. 
The  result  was  a  structure  that  is  not  only  perfectly  adapted  for  use 
by  the  adults  and  older  youth  of  the  community  as  a  civic  gathering 
place  and  recreation  center,  but  is  better  adapted  for  use  as  a  school 
house  and  more  economically  arranged  than  the  traditional  type  of 
school  buildings.  And  instead  of  being  more  expensive,  this  combina- 
tion school  house  and  recreation  center  is  actually  cheaper  than  the 
old  style  of  construction.  The  idea  is  being  copied  in  many  places 
in  the  middle  western  states. 

The  first  outstanding  feature  of  this  style  of  building  is  that  it 
wastes  no  space  in  halls  and  stairs.  It  is  a  one-story  structure.  Most 
of  the  school  buildings  in  Ogden  have  from  a  fourth  to  a  third  of 
their  space  given  up  to  halls  and  stairs.  It  is  top-lighted  so  that  there 
is  no  difficulty  in  difference  of  lighting  on  account  of  nearness  or 
distance  from  windows.  It  is  absolutely  free  from  fire  risk,  for  the 
children  can  get  out  of  the  building  without  any  stairs  or  fire  escape 
to  descend.  And  obviously  it  is  not  only  more  convenient  for  the 
use  of  the  older  people  who  come  to  the  building  in  the  evening  by 
reason  of  the  absence  of  stairs  to  climb,  but  is  also  more  convenient 
for  the  teachers  and  pupils. 

Another  feature  is  the  practical  combination  of  an  auditorium 
equipped  with  a  full  sized  stage  and  a  gymnasium.  The  size  of  the 
stage  is  secured  without  robbing  the  rest  of  the  building  by  its 
being  the  kindergarten  during  the  day;  heavy  sound-proof  curtains 
shutting  it  off  from  the  large  auditorium  when  it  is  being  used  as  a 
kindergarten.  This  stage  being  raised  affords  a  place  where  the 
seats  needed  for  its  use  as  an  auditorium  may  be  stored  when  the 
room  is  being  used  for  dancing  or  as  a  gymnasium,  and  also  affords 
space  for  storing  gymnasium  apparatus  when  the  room  is  being  used 
as  an  auditorium. 

Now  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  architecture  of  the  Ogden 
school  ^  buildings  will  be  suddenly  transformed  by  the  systematic 
beginning  of  their  use  as  centers  of  civic,  social  and  recreational  activ- 
ities during  the  time  that  they  are  now  idle.  Certain  minor  changes 
and  additions  to  their  equipment  must  be  made  at  once,  such  as  the 
installation  of  electric  lighting.  But  in  the  future  there  is  sure  to  be 
a  tendency  to  modify  the  architectural  character  of  the  Ogden  school 
houses  to  adapt  them  for  full  use  as  neighborhood  centers,  and  the 
point  here  to  be  ^emphasized  is  that  this  means  better  schoolhouses 
for  the  children,  instructional  use,  and  actually  cheaper  construction 
than  Ogden  has  at  present. 

If  the  city  commission  and  the  school  board  are  combined,  the 
first  step  is  taken  toward  the  working  out  of  a  model  system  of 
centralized  neighborhood  equipment,  at  once  better  schoolhouses  than 
the  city  has  at  present,  and  better  recreation  buildings  than  could  be 
secured  otherwise.  If  on  the  other  hand  the  present  disunity  of 
administration  is  allowed  to  persist,  Ogden  will  continue  to  be  with- 
out modern  physical  equipment  for  either  the  purpose  of  children's 
instruction  or  civic  and  recreational  uses  by  the  rest  of  the  members 
of  the  various  districts  in  the  city. 


35 

Avoid  Duplication  of  Function. 

The  addition  of  the  work  of  the  school  board  to  the  present  and 
recognized  work  of  the  municipal  commission  would  require  no 
change  in  the  character  of  its  duties,  but  only  the  logical  extension  of 
its  functions  on  the  lines  of  its  present  responsibility.  The  various 
sorts  of  duties  which  are  now  handled  by  the  school  board  without 
business-like  division,  such  as  would  make  the  definite  placing  of 
responsibility  possible,  may  easily  be  distributed  among  the  several 
municipal  commissioners  on  the  precise  lines  of  their  present  division 
of  responsibility.  For  instance,  the  finances  of  the  public  school  sys- 
tem would  be  taken  care  of  by  the  department  of  finance  of  the  city 
government  and  be  under  the  supervision  of  the  head  of  that  depart- 
ment; the  care  of  the  school  buildings  and  grounds  would  be  looked 
after  by  the  department  of  the  city  commission  that  has  charge  of 
public  property,  and  be  under  the  supervision  of  the  head  of  that 
department;  the  work  of  truancy  prevention,  sanitary  inspection,  and 
so  on,  would  easily  be  included  in  the  care  of  the  department  of  public 
safety. 

There  are  now  two  systems  of  bookkeeping,  budget  making  and 
financial  accounting.  Under  the  unified  administration  of  the  city's 
affairs  there  would  be  but  one  and  this  would  not  only  cost  less,  but 
obviously  it.  would  be  more  efficient.  There  are  now  two  separate 
elections  of  public  servants  to  whom  the  affairs  of  the  city  are  com- 
mitted. With  the  unification  of  administration  the  time-waste  and  the 
expense  of  one  of  these  elections  would  be  obviated.  There  are 
two  systems  of  report  printing.  With  the  adoption  of  unification, 
there  would  be  issued  more  comprehensive  and  valuable  reports  at  less 
cost  than  is  at  present  incurred.  The  city  has  two  systems  of  policing. 
Though  not  usually  recognized,  the  function  of  a  police  department 
does  reside  and  has  from  the  beginning  resided  in  the  public 
school  officials,  the  principals,  the  teachers  and  the  truant  officer. 
The  duty  of  preventing  disorder  and  promoting  morality  is  common 
to  both.  Their  efficient  correlation  demands  their  being  combined 
under  one  administration.  Obviously  the  maintaining  of  two  systems 
of  caring  for  the  gardening  and  parking  of  public  grounds  is  wasteful 
and  ineffecient.  The  care  of  all  public  grounds  should  be  under  one 
management.  The  same  is  plainly  true  of  the  work  of  public  archi- 
tecture and  engineering  ;and  emphatically  true  of  the  work  of  health 
inspection,  promotion,  and  sanitation.  Beyond  question,  the  work  of 
the  juvenile  court  and  the  distribution  of  relief  should  be  under  the 
same  administration  with  that  of  the  schools.  In  their  provision  of 
texts  and  supplementary  reading  material,  the  public  schools  are  now 
maintaining  a  public  library.  Meanwhile  over  the  door  of  the  "Public 
Library"  are  these  words,  "In  the  education  of  its  people  lies  the 
safety  of  the  republic."  Could  there  be  a  plainer  declaration  of  dup- 
lication, especially  as  this  is  backed  by  the  fact  that  the  public 
schoolhouses  are  used  practically  not  at  all  as  branch  public  libraries, 
as  they,  of  course,  would  be  if  these  two  parts  of  the  city's  educational 
equipment  were  unified  under  one  efficient  administration. 

The  School  Superintendency. 

Of  course,  as  the  appointee  of  a  school  board  that  is  also  the 
municipal  commission,  the  superintendent  of  schools  would  have  the 
same  responsibility  and  function  as  at  present,  but  obviously,  he 
would  be  in  a  better  position  for  efficient  work  than  the  occupant  of 
this  office  now  is. 


36 

He  would  derive  his  authority  from,  and  have  the  co-operation 
of,  a  body  of  men  devoting  their  whole  time  and  energy  to  the  admin- 
istration of  the  city's  business,  instead  of  having  for  authorization  and 
counsel,  a  body  which  meets  for  but  an  hour  or  so  each  week. 

His  work  would  not  be  hampered  by  the  annoyances  of  an  oppo- 
sition that  arises,  at  least  in  part,  from  old  jealousies,  antagonisms 
and  prejudices  due  to  the  division  of,  and  the  differences  between, 
the  board  of  education  and  the  municipal  commission. 

By  having  the  co-operation  of  the  department  of  finance  in  hand- 
ling the  money  affairs  of  the  school  system,  the  co-operation  of  the  de- 
partment of  public  property  in  looking  after  the  buildings  and  grounds, 
and  the  co-operation  of  the  department  of  public  safety  in  the  work 
of  truancy  prevention  and  inspection,  the  superintendent  would  be 
relieved  of  much  of  the  business  management  to  which  he  now  has 
to  devote  his  energy  and  time,  and  would  be  able  to  center  his  atten- 
tion and  effort  upon  the  more  professional  part  of  a  superintendent's 
work. 

Moreover,  by  his  position  as  the  executive  appointee  of  the 
single  administrative  body  of  the  city,  the  superintendent  would  serve 
not  only  to  make  the  work  of  educating  the  children  more  effective 
by  his  having  access  to  the  resources  of  the  various  departments  of 
the  city  government  insofar  as  their  work  may  be  advantageously 
correlated  in  the  efficient  administration  of  this  most  important  work, 
but  he  would  also  serve,  in  some  degree  as  a  preserver  and  promoter 
of  unity  of  organization  in  the  work  of  the  commission  itself.  In  this 
position,  the  superintendent  would  not  be  a' "city  manager;"  but  if 
this  plan  is  adopted,  it  will  be  seen  by  students  of  municipal  admin- 
istration that  under  this  plan,  the  advantages  of  both  the  "commission 
form"  and  the  "city  manager"  plan  are  secured — the  distribution  of 
functions  which  belongs  to  the  commission  plan  is  preserved,  and  at 
the  same  time,  the  centralization  of  those  responsibilities  that  should 
be  centralized,  with  the  consequent  unification  of  the  work  of  the 
whole  body,  is  secured.  It  has  all  of  the  advantages  of  the  "city 
manager"  plan,  without  carrying  too  far  the  centralization  of  responsi- 
bility, as  seems  to  have  been  done  in  the  cities  and  towns  that  have 
gone  to  this  extreme  in  striving  after  unity  in  municipal  administra- 
tion. 

Obviously,  the  focussing  of  attention  upon  the  work  of  the  super- 
intendent, which  the  establishment  of  his  office  under  the  unified  com- 
mission would  secure,  would  tend  to  call  forth  the  highest  capacities 
of  the  man  who  occupies  this  position,  would  protect  him  from  the 
indignities  that  the  present  occupant  of  the  superintendency  is  called 
upon  to  suffer,  and  would  be  a  guarantee  that  the  selection  of  a  man 
for  this  position  will  continually  be  upon  a  high  standard. 

The  Civic  Secretaryship. 

As  has  been  suggested  above,  the  increased  use  of  the  public 
school  buildings  and  grounds  as  centers  of  civic  expression  and  muni- 
cipal recreation,  which  would  be  facilitated  by  the  placing  of  their 
control  in  the  hands  of  the  single  commission,  would  imply  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  office  of  general  civic  secretary  and  executive  organ- 
izer and  director  of  the  wider  uses  of  the  public  school  plant. 

The  responsibility  of  this  office  would  not  conflict  with  that  of 
the  superintendent  of  schools,  but  would  begin  where  the  responsi- 
bility of  the  superintendent  now  ends.  The  superintendent  is  officially 
responsible  for  organizing  and  directing  the  use  of  this  system  of 
neighborhood  buildings  as  centers  for  the  instruction  of  children. 
His  responsibility  is  simply  over  the  children  who  are  enrolled  in  the 


37 

public  schools.  He  has  the  regular  and  established  use  of  this  system 
of  buildings  under  his  administration.  Now  the  whole  realm  of  the 
use  of  these  buildings  by  adults  for  voting  and  for  other  civic  activ- 
ities and  their  use  by  young  people  for  training  in  self  government, 
and  their  use  by  all  the  people  as  centers  of  recreation  and  culture, 
requires  as  definite  and  systematic  organization,  and  continuous  at- 
tention as  does  the  work  now  established  in  the  hands  of  the  super- 
intendent of  schools. 

The  function  of  this  office  of  civic  secretary  would  include  the 
arrangements  for  and  the  handling  of  the  details  of  the  use  of  the 
public  schoolhouses  as  polling  places  and  as  centers  of  civic  assembly. 
In  his  relation  to  the  adult  citizens  in  their  use  of  these  buildings,  the 
civic  secretary  would  obviously  not  be  over  the  citizens  in  authority, 
but  under  them  as  the  clerk  of  a  board  of  aldermen  or  of  a  deliber- 
ative assembly  in  the  state  house  or  the  national  capitol  is  under  its 
membership,  or  as  the  clerk  was,  in  the  old  New  England  Town,  not 
over  the  citizens,  but  at  their  service  and  command. 

In  order  to  work  out  efficiently  and  economically  the  use  of  the 
use  of  the  schoolhouses  as  centers  of  district  citizenship  organization 
and  expression,  it  will  of  course,  be  necessary  to  have  district  secretar- 
ial service  provided. 

It  has  been  found  that  normally  this  work  may  be  rendered  best 
by  the  school  principal  in  each  district. 

In  order  to  take  charge  of  the  work  of  social  center  organization  it 
is  obviously  necessary  that  the  school  principal  should  be  relieved  of 
some  of  the  detail  work  for  which  he  is  now  engaged.  Obviously,  the 
authorization  of  the  principal  as  the  district  clerk  for  voting  and  for 
deliberation  of  the  citizens  will  tend  to  make  his  service  as  principal 
over  the  children  in  a  community  more  vital  and  efficient  by  as  much 
as  he  will  be  kept  constantly  and  officially  in  touch  with  the  adults 
of  the  district.  Not  always,  however,  is  the  principal  qualified  to 
render  this  service,  and  in  some  cases  it  may  be  necessary  to  arrange 
for  its  being  rendered  by  another  competent  person.  But  whether  the 
school  principal  directly  administers  this  work  or  not,  it  ought  to  be 
organized  under  his  general  supervision  so  as  to  keep  the  unity  of  the 
social  center  with  the  work  that  is  now  being  carried  on  in  the  building. 
But  whether  the  school  principal  directly  administers  this  work  or 
not,  it  should  be  definitely  remunerated  from  the  beginning  for  it 
is  as  real  public  service  as  the  teaching  of  children,  and  without  remun- 
eration there  is  no  definite  fixing  of  responsibility. 

A  few  years  ago  it  was  supposed  that  the  administration  of  the 
uses  of  the  schoolhouses  as  civic  and  recreation  centers  necessitated 
the  appointment  of  a  general  civic  secretary  separate  from  the  city 
superintendent  of  schools.  But  during  the  past  year  Mr.  W.  E.  Mad- 
dock,  the  superintedent  of  schools  at  Superior,  Wisconsin,  has  demon- 
strated that  the  administration  of  social  center  activities  may  be  car- 
ried on  by  the  superintendent  himself.  To  be  sure,  Mr.  Maddock  had 
one  assistant  whose  work  it  was  to  organize  and  outline  this  develop- 
ment, and  now  Mr.  Mladdock  has  six  assistants  specificially  engaged 
for  this  work  of  community  organization.  But  the  experience  of 
Superior  has  shown  that  the  function  of  general  civic  secretary  may 
be,  and  indeed  does  tend  to  be  combined  and  unified  with  that  of  the 
city  superintendent. 

Whether  this  work  be  done  by  an  associate  or  assistant  the 
superintendent  or  directly  by  the  superintendent,  it  is  important  that 
it  be  officially  defined.  The  general  civic  secretary  occupies  some- 
what the  same  relation  toward  the  school  principals  in  their  work  as 
district  secretaries  that  the  superintendent  of  schools  occupies  to- 


38 

ward  the  principals  in  their  work  of  directing  the  children's  instruction. 
The  general  civic  secretary  will  assist  in  bringing  about  the  initial 
organization,  in  suggesting  constitution,  programs,  speakers,  and  in 
assembling,  organizing  and  transmitting  the  information  gained  from 
the  experience  of  the  various  communities,  so  that  this  may  be  avail- 
able for  the  use  of  all  the  communities. 

By  having  this  general  civic  secretarial  office  established  at  the 
center  of  administration  of  the  city's  affairs,  it  will  serve  as  a  con- 
venient agency  for  the  municipal  commission  in  bringing  about  the 
orderly  consideration  by  the  citizens  of  such  matters  as  the  com- 
missioners might  wish  to  refer  to  the  people,  and  so  would  help  to 
bring  about  a  more  discerning  and  intelligent  support  of  the  citizens' 
agents  in  their  work.  On  the  other  hand,  his  appointment  and  the 
establishment  of  his  office  would  tend  to  prevent  the  bothering  of 
the  commission  by  individuals  "cranks"  and  to  obviate  interference 
with  the  commission's  work  by  little  private,  volunteer  and  irrespon- 
sible organizations  of  factional  character  and  partisan  bias.  It  would 
bring  the  citizenship  as  an  organized  body  closer  to  its  municipal 
agent,  and  conversely,  it  tends  to  prevent  the  municipal  agents  from 
either  lagging  behind  or  going  ahead  of  the  intelligent  and  well-con- 
sidered desire  of  the  people  whose  servants  they  are.  In  addition  to 
his  service  for  the  systematic  consideration  of  local  questions,  of 
course,  it  would  be  the  duty  of  the  Civic  Secretary  to  study  how  the 
problems  of  state  and  national  welfare,  for  whose  decision  the  citizens 
of  Ogden  have  their  full  share  of  responsibility  may  be  presented  so 
as  to  have  their  consideration  fair  and  the  examination  into  their 
merits  thorough. 

In  addition  to  his  service  as  civic  secretary  under  the  citizenship, 
devoted  to  the  work  of  making  the  common  interest  interesting,  which 
would  give  its  fundamental  and  basic  character  to  his  office,  the  man 
appointed  to  this  position  would  have  charge  of  the  organization  of 
the  youth,  the  young  and  men  and  women  of  each  neighborhood  who 
are  between  school  age  and  adulthood  into  a  self-governing  club 
patterned  upon  the  adult  civic  organization  of  each  district.  At 
present  there  is  no  systematic  training  in  self-government  given 
to  the  young  men  and  women  who  are  soon  to  assume  the 
full  responsibilities  of  citizenship.  By  the  adoption  of  this  plan, 
this  vital  lack  would  be  supplied  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
assure  increasingly  efficient  citizenship  in  the  future.  Of  course 
this  work  must  be  directed  and  for  its  direction  there  must  be 
local  responsible  leadership.  This  is  not  a  matter  of  considerably 
increased  expense,  however,  for  it  has  been  found  that  this  work  can 
be  well  done  by  men  and  women  who  are  already  in  the  employ  of  the 
school  system.  Of  course  this  young  peoples  club  directorship,  like 
the  district  secretaryship  for  adult  civic  assembling  should  be  re- 
munerated, but  with  an  organizing  general  director  of  the  work  in 
the  person  of  the  Civic  Secretary,  it  is  not  necessary  to  engage  the 
whole  time  of  the  local  directors  of  this  activity. 

The  third  general  function  that  would  come  within  the  direction 
of  the  Civic  Secretary  would  be  the  supervision  and  systematic  organ- 
ization of  the  recreational  uses  of  the  school  buildings,  their  use  for 
physical  culture,  for  musical  and  dramatic  expression,  for  lectures, 
motion  pictures  and  entertainments  of  various  kinds;  and,  as  other 
forms  of  community  co-operation  centering  in  the  neighborhood  build- 
ings are  decided  upon,  it  will  be  the  work  of  the  Civic  Secretary  to 
serve  the  people  in  the  effecting  of  these  co-operations,  and  to  study 
constantly  the  problem  of  correlation  and  adjustment  of  the  various 
activities  that  are  carried  on  in  the  neighborhood  centers  in  the  school 


39 

buildings  and  upon  the  school  grounds  so  that  the  adult  and  youthful 
activities  may  be  efficiently  adjusted  together  and  so  that  these  non- 
compulsory  use  of  the  school  houses  may  be  correlated  with  the 
compulsory  use  of  these  buildings  by  the  children.  The  function  of 
the  Civic  Secretary  might  be  considered  here  in  further  detail,  but 
obviously  no  man  would  be  likely  to  be  appointed  to  assist  the  super- 
intendent in  this  work  who  would  need  detailed  directions,  and 
enough  has  been  suggested  as  to  his  duties  to  indicate  the  necessity 
of  the  appointment  of  a  man  for  this  position,  if  the  civic  and  recrea- 
tional efficiency  of  the  city  is  to  be  secured. 

This  Plan  Necessary  to  Educational  Efficiency. 

It  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  axiomatic  that  efficiency,  not  only 
in  citizenship  and  in  the  power  constructively  to  use  leisure,  which 
is  the  very  core  and  fiber  of  morality,  but  also  industrial  and  economic 
efficiency,  which  is  at  the  basis  of  all  possible  advance,  is  first  and 
finally  dependent  upon  educational  efficiency. 

It  has  long  been  recognized  by  clear-seeing  students  of  the  great 
problem  of  human  together-living  that  the  development  of  that  Public 
Spirit  which  is  the  breath  and  life-force  of  civic,  moral  and  economic 
efficiency  is  dependent  upon  establishing  an  actual  school  for  con- 
venient use  by  the  whole  membership  of  a  community — a  "School  of 
Public  Spirit."  The  description  given  long  ago  by  John  Stuart  Mill 
of  the  Society  in  which  this  provision  is  not  made,  appears  to  be 
not  totally  inapplicable  to  Ogden. 

"Where  this  School  of  Public  Spirit  does  not  exist  scarcely  any 
sense  is  entertained  that  private  persons  .  .  .  owe  any  duties  to 
society,  except  to  obey  the  laws  and  submit  to  the  government.  There 
is  no  unselfish  identification  with  the  public.  Every  thought  or  feel- 
ing, either  of  interest  or  of  duty,  is  absorbed  in  the  individual  and  in 
the  family.  The  man  never  thinks  of  any  collective  interest,  of  any 
objects  to  be  purchased  jointly  with  others,  but  only  in  competition 
with  them,  and  in  some  measure,  at  their  expense.  A  neighbor  not 
being  an  ally  nor  an  associate,  since  he  is  never  engaged  in  any  com- 
mon undertaking  for  joint  benefit  is,  therefore,  only  a  rival.  Thus 
even  private  morality  suffers,  while  public  is  actually  extinct. 

"It  is  not  sufficiently  considered  how  little  there  is  in  most  men's 
ordinary  life  to  give  any  largeness,  either  to  their  conceptions  or  to 
their  sentiments.  Their  work  is  a  routine,  neither  the  thing  done  nor 
the  process  of  doing  it  introduces  the  mind  to  thoughts  or  feelings 
extending  beyond  individuals;  if  instructive  books  are  within  their 
reach  there  is  no  stimulus  to  read  them;  and  in  most  cases  the 
individual  has  no  access  to  any  person  of  cultivation  much  superior 
to  his  own.  Giving  him  something  to  do  for  the  Public  supplies,  in 
a  measure,  all  these  deficiencies." 

This  recognition  of  the  community  need  of  an  institution  for  the 
educating  of  Public  Spirit,  is  applied  to  the  problem  of  the  American 
community  in  the  words  of  President  Wilson,  quoted  above.  In  the 
same  address,  in  which  those  words  were  spoken,  President  Wilson 
declared  that  without  the  practical  educational  working  out  of  a  system 
of  civic  co-operation,  the  American  experiment  in  self-government 
cannot  succeed: 

"There  is  no  sovereignty  of  the  people  if  the  several  sections  of 
the  people  are  at  loggerheads  with  one  another.  Sovereignty  comes 
with  co-operation." 

And  today  the  perception  of  thoughtful  men  and  women  every- 
where is  clarifying  to  the  recognition  that  the  characteristic  institu- 
tion of  America,  the  public  school,  is  not  only  failing  of  two-thirds 


40 

of  its  service  when  used  merely  for  the  instruction  of  children,  but 
that  this  established  function  of  the  public  school  cannot  be  success- 
ful unless  the  school  house  is  made  the  center  of  civic  co-operation 
and  recreation  for  the  whole  community. 

For  instance,  but  a  short  time  ago  the  International  Congress  on 
the  Welfare  of  the  Child  at  its  meeting  in  Washington,  D.  C,  put 
forth  the  following  declaration: 

"WHEREAS:  The  nation's  system  of  district  buildings,  now  used 
only  for  the  instruction  of  children,  affords  the  worthy,  convenient, 
and  appropriate  machinery  for  citizenship-expression  in  voting  and 
for  that  organized  all-sided  deliberation  upon  public  questions  without 
which  voting  cannot  be  intelligent,  and  for  the  training  in  self-govern- 
ment of  youth  between  school  age  and  adulthood;  and 

"WHEREAS:  America's  system  of  public  school  houses,  repre- 
senting as  it  does  our  great  and  primary  co-operation,  is  capable  of 
being  used  as  the  machinery  of  further  co-operation  in  practically  and 
permanently  reducing  the  cost  of  living  and  in  resolving  industrial 
maladjustment  and  unrest;  and, 

"WHEREAS:  Our  system  of  common  school  plants,  now  idle  dur- 
ing the  time  of  public  leisure  which  is  the  time  of  public  dissipation, 
is  ready  to  be  used  for  constructive,  well-planned,  well-directed,  whole- 
some recreation  and  for  the  democratic  expression  of  music,  the 
drama,  and  all  the  arts;  and  especially, 

"WHEREAS:  Only  when  the  public  school  building  is  fully  used 
by  adults  and  older  youth  as  the  social  center,  the  commonplace  of 
civic,  industrial,  and  recreational  co-operation,  can  it  efficiently  fulfill 
its  prime  function  as  the  training  place  of  the  child; 

"THEREFORE  BE  IT  RESOLVED:  That  the  public  school 
house  be  made  the  polling  places  and  common  council  headquarters 
of  citizenship  and  the  training  places  in  self-government  of  youth 
between  school  age  and  adulthood; 

"That  the  public  school  buildings  be  used  for  such  extensions  of 
co-operative  enterprise  as  the  assembled  citizens  may  agree  upon,  and 
that  the  use  of  the  school  houses  as  employment  offices  be  correlated 
with  their  use  for  vocational  training;  and 

"That  the  public  school  buildings  and  grounds  as  opened,  during 
the  time  that  they  are  now  idle,  as  branch  public  libraries,  art  galleries, 
centers  of  musical  and  dramatic  expression,  lecture  halls,  motion 
picture  theatres,  gymnasia,  and  recreation  centers  for  all  the  people." 

Ogden's  Present  Illustration  of  This  Necessity. 

The  general  statements  given  above  pointing  to  the  necessity  of 
the  school's  full  use,  if  it  is  to  succeed  in  its  prime  function,  apply 
as  clearly  and  as  strongly  to  Ogden  as  to  any  other  community.  But 
it  may  be  well  to  indicate  how  the  present  unfortunate  situation  in 
regard  to  the  Ogden  school  system  illustrates  this  necessity. 

The  first  and  final  responsibility  for  the  character  of  the  public 
school  system  rests  upon  the  adult  members  of  the  community  of 
Ogden.  The  public  education  of  the  children  is  the  chief  co-operative 
enterprise  in  which  all  the  citizens  of  Ogden  are  united.  This  co- 
operative enterprise  of  the  children's  education  differs  from  all  others 
in  which  the  men  and  women  of  the  city  might  engage,  in  this — 
however  earnest  and  well  directed  may  be  the  efforts  of  the  adminis- 
trative agents  of  the  citizens,  the  superintendent  of  the  school  staff, 
yet  the  strongest  influence  making  for  the  success  or  failure  of  this 
enterprise  is  and  will  continue  to  be  the  example  set  by  the  adult 
citizens  of  the  community. 


41 

Investigation  has  shown  that  the  present  school  administration 
and  staff  of  employes  is  conscientiously  endeavoring  to  develop  in 
the  children,  by  and  through  all  the  special  training  of  mental  percep- 
tion and  manual  skill,  the  spirit  of  good  citizenship,  the  capacity  and 
will,  not  to  shirk  public  responsibility,  but  to  see  in  the  co-operation 
of  mind  and  hand  and  heart  for  the  solution  of  the  problems  of  public 
welfare,  the  supreme  opportunity  of  life. 

The  first  question  to  be  asked  is  whether  the  adult  citizens,  whose 
example  is  the  most  powerful  factor  in  the  efficiency  of  the  public 
school  system,  are  setting  such  an  example  as  tends  to  make  possible 
the  success  of  the  public  schools  in  their  highest  function. 

Great  and  complex  problems  of  national  and  state  welfare,  the 
selection  of  public  agents  and  the  determination  of  policies,  are  con- 
tinually and  urgently  demanding  careful  examination  and  orderly  all- 
sided  discussion  on  the  part  of  the  citizens  who  are  finally  responsible 
for  their  solution.  In  the  face  of  this  demand  for  organized  delibera- 
tion upon  the  vital  questions  of  the  common  life,  the  citizens  of  Ogden 
have  not  been  systematically  "going  to  school  to  one  another  in  the 
understanding  of  public  questions."  And  even  when  questions  of 
policy  and  method  in  the  conduct  of  the  great  local  co-operative 
enterprise  of  the  children's  education  arise,  such  as  those  which  have 
been  agitating  this  community,  they  are  not  made  the  subject  of  calm 
and  orderly  consideration  by  the  whole  good  natured  citizenship 
assembling  in  the  convenient  and  friendly  district  buildings  that  the 
city  has.  Does  anyone  imagine  that  the  children's  training  in  citizen- 
ship could  be  efficient,  with  such  an  example  of  bad  citizenship  set 
before  them,  as  the  children  have  had  in  the  manifestation  of  intense, 
narrow  and  obviously  prejudiced  partisanship  among  a  few  busy 
people  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  equally  blameworthy  (were  people 
to  be  blamed  for  what  is  a  fault  in  the  system)  lack  of  intelligent 
interest  on  the  part  of  the  majority  of  Ogden's  citizens,  on  the  other, 
in  the  treatment  of  such  important  questions  of  public  policy  as 
have  been  under  consideration? 

The  futility  of  moral  training  of  children  in  the  schools,  while 
the  city  is  doing  nothing  constructively  to  prevent  the  leisure  of  the 
older  youth,  who  set  the  children's  actual  moral  standards,  from 
being  used  for  dissipation,  is  too  obvious  to  require  forth-setting. 

The  converse  of  the  statement  that  the  schools  cannot  succeed  in 
their  prime  function  of  children's  instruction  unless  they  are  fully 
used  by  adults  and  older  youth  as  centers  of  civic  expression  and 
wholesome  recreation,  is  equally  true.  The  experience  of  communi- 
ties all  over  the  country  where  beginnings  have  been  made  in  the 
full  use  of  school  plants  proves  that  this  is  the  way  not  only  to  im- 
prove architecture  and  better  equipment  of  the  buildings,  but  is  the 
way  directly  to  the  increased  efficiency  of  the  service  of  the  school 
as  the  center  of  children's  instruction. 

This  fact  of  the  futility  of  the  public  school's  effort  at  civic  and 
moral  in-building  of  children  except  as  it  is  made  the  center  of  adult 
civic  expression  and  constructively  planned  and  wholesome  fun,  and 
the  hope  of  instructional  efficiency  that  lies  in  the  full  community 
use  of  these  buildings,  which  has  its  illustrations  here  in  Ogden,  is 
stated  in  these  words,  by  Dr.  Edward  C.  Elliott,  one  of  the  nation's 
keenest  students  of  school  efficiency. 

"Nine-tenths — one  may  be  fair — of  the  so-called  instruction  that 
aims  to  make  for  healthy  active  standards  of  citizenship  is  devoted  to 
the  mouthing  of  the  mere  forms  of  civic  existence.  Vital  instruction 


42 

in  the  civic  virtues  means  contact  with  the  real  pulsating  civic  life. 
The  citizenship  of  the  future  must  be  trained  in  the  civic  forums  of 
today.  And  the  civic  forum  contemplated  in  the  organization  of  the 
social  center  gives  more  promise  of  contributing  virility  and  strength 
to  civic  education  than  any  effort  that  has  sought  to  bulwark  political 
institutions  since  the  days  when  the  Athenian  boy  became  a  Greek 
through  vitalizing  contact  with  the  life  of  his  elders  and  the  Roman 
boy  was  educated  with  and  by  Roman  citizens. 

"Closely  linked  with  civic  education  is  the  more  fundamental 
moral  education.  The  school  is  learning  that  ethics  and  morals,  to  be 
effectively  taught,  must  employ  those  channels  of  influence  that  have 
been  found  to  be  necessary  in  other  subjects.  Words  and  formularies 
will  not  be  effective.  The  school  must  dig  deeper  if  it  wishes  to 
reach  those  strata  of  human  nature  out  of  which  comes  the  richness 
of  a  national  conduct." 


The  Time  is  Here. 

So  to  sum  up  the  results  of  the  investigation  of  Ogden's  public 
school  system  from  the  point  of  view  of  its  adaption  to  the  needs  of 
this  community: 

A  study  of  the  character  of  the  population  and  the  industrial 
development  of  the  city,  revealed  the  urgent  and  growing  need  of 
comprehensive  and  effective  citizenship  organization.  As  the  ade- 
quate and  feasible  way  to  meet  this  need,  the  recommendation  that 
the  system  of  public  school  buildings  be  used  as  the  system  through 
which  this  may  be  accomplished,  was  soon  agreed  upon. 

A  consideration  of  the  absence  of  constructive  public  provision 
for  the  leisure-time  needs  of  the  community  showed  the  need  of 
recreational  co-operation.  The  economical  answer  was  apparently  to 
be  found  in  the  use  of  the  public  school  buildings  and  grounds  as 
recreation  centers. 

With  the  progress  of  the  investigation,  it  became  increasingly 
apparent  that  the  educational,  civic,  recreational  and  economic  needs 
of  Ogden  can  be  suoplied  only  by  the  economizing  of  money  and 
effort.  Thus,  the  unification  of  the  city  administration  through  com- 
bining the  work  of  the  school  board  with  that  of  the  municipal  com- 
mission, the  key  to  the  whole  situation,  came  to  be  seen  for  what 
it  is — not  only  an  ideal  arrangement,  but  an  immediate  necessity. 

As  to  the  wisdom  of  making  this  recommendation  at  just  this 
time,  conferences  were  held  with  both  the  municipal  commission  and 
the  board  of  education.  Though  no  official  action  upon  it  was  asked 
for  or  taken,  not  only  did  the  plan  meet  with  the  approval  of  the 
members  of  both  boards,  but  there  seemed  to  be  unanimity  as  to  the 
desirability  of  the  plan's  being  set  forth  at  once,  so  that  no  time  may 
be  lost  in  having  it  thoroughly  considered  by  the  citizens  of  Ogden 
and,  if  approved,  that  a  movement  be  quickly  set  on  foot  for  its  real- 
ization. 

The  plan  cannot  be  put  into  operation  without  legislative  enact- 
ment. This,  instead  of  being  disadvantageous,  is  a  positive  advantage. 
It  will  assure  the  full  and  careful  consideration  of  the  plan  and  its- 
thorough  understanding  before  it  can  be  put  into  operation. 


YC  5603k! 


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